Wolfgang Sonne - Böcker

Text in English & German. Since the 1950s Stefan Polónyi has realised a large number of buildings of all kinds from his Cologne office, working with famous architects all over the world. In his view, load-bearing structure, form and function have to form an indissoluble entity, and thus create an aesthetic appearance: beauty feeds on structural consistency. Very few civil engineers have made claims of this kind. Architects who have worked with Polónyi see this ambitious claim as something that has enriched their own design process. First of all Polónyi, working with Josef Lehmbrock and Fritz Schaller, developed bold folded structures and shells for church buildings, and this at a time before statical calculations were not done by computer, but a lot of things still had to be tried out in model form. Polónyi co-operated closely with Oswald Mathias Ungers on the Galleria for the Frankfurter Messe, among other projects. He made the flying roof for Axel Schultes' Kunstmuseum Bonn possible, supported by a row of irregularly placed columns, and also the undulating metal ceiling in the auditorium of Rem Koolhaas' Nederlands Dans Theater and the umbrella-like roofing for the approach tracks in Cologne's main station. Polónyi's bridges, built from the 1990s in the Ruhr District, have become landmarks in the meantime with their red curved tubes as a structural and aesthetic element. Today he creates his bridges as buildings over the river, so-called Living Bridges. Polónyi's wide range of professional experience had a considerable bearing on his teaching at Berlin and Dortmund Technical Universities. Working with architects Harald Deilmann and Josef Paul Kleihues, Polónyi established the "Dortmund Model for the Building Sciences". It provides joint training for architects and civil engineers in a single faculty. The present book is appearing to accompany the exhibition of the same name in the "Dortmunder U". The essays address specific aspects of Polónyi's work. So Karl-Eugen Kurrer and Ulrich Pfammatter look at the development of structural analysis and the resultant distinction drawn between the professional territories of the civil engineer and the architect. Patrik Schumacher, partner in Zaha Hadid's practice, represents a current position in terms of co-operation between the two disciplines. Katrin Lichtenstein's account of the Dortmund Model and Atilla Ötes' view of the current study situation consider the effect on training and teaching. Sonja Hnilica analyses the folding systems and shells in the church projects, and Polónyi presents his bridges, including the designs for the Living Bridges.

City streets form the backbone of public spaces. In addition to serve mobility, they provide opportunities for shopping, entertainment, strolling, and much more. They are urban spaces shaped and characterized by the facades of buildings. In the face of today’s climatic requirements, how can we design the city streets of the future to be distinctive and inviting urban spaces? For over a decade, the Konferenz zur Schönheit und Lebensfähigkeit der Stadt has dedicated itself to fundamental questions in urban development. The contributions in this volume present discussions from experts in both the theory and practice of a range of different disciplines, as well as from the heads of various German city planning departments, on how the functional and traffic needs of city streets can be combined with their architectural, urban design, and ecological requirements. Discusses the challenges and opportunities offered by urban streets Brings together contributions by renowned experts from both research and practice

Given current sustainability requirements, the quality of the built city—its buildings and public spaces—takes on a particular importance. Yet many municipalities complain about a shortage of experts who are capable of effectively designing cities, urban districts, and urban spaces. Building on the 2014 Cologne declaration on urban design education, ‟Die Stadt zuerst” (‟The City First”), the fourteenth Konferenz zur Schönheit und Lebensfähigkeit der Stadt (Conference on the Beauty and Viability of the City) seeks to circumscribe the requisite professional expertise: what do urban planners need to know in order to design and realize sustainable and resilient cities? They require a solid knowledge concerning suitable street infrastructures, sizes, and shapes of blocks, plot configurations, and building types, for a start. Beyond this, they also need the ability to shape urban spaces and their surfaces so that they remain attractive over the long-term and develop characteristic local atmospheres. Critically examines academic teaching in the fields of urban development and urban design Serves as a stimulus regarding current issues such as the fragmentation of planning processes Contains contributions by renowned experts from both research and practice