Integrative building project at former flower wholesale market

"We wanted to create a facade from a material that would be neither light nor dark and would also contribute to urban quality," says Carolin Gyra, project architect at the Heide & von Beckerath architectural office. The medium grey glazed ceramic elements of the Craft series, developed by the architects and Agrob Buchtal especially for this project, achieve both - a facade consisting of thousands of pixels, which, depending on the point of view, sometimes appear light and sometimes dark. The shimmering effect of the identical pixels is partly due to the slightly iridescent colours of the ceramic elements fired in the traditional way in the tunnel kiln. Above all, however, it is based on its irregular triangular cross-section (which produces two differently inclined faces) as well as on its mounting, which in pairs is always rotated alternately by 180°, providing a wide variety of light reflections and reflections. In a way, the facade thus symbolizes the diversity and complexity of the project, even when viewed from a great distance.