Rethinking Our Existing Buildings

The 6,100 m² roof areas of the former office complex, located on various levels, play an important role in the revitalisation concept of "New Ganghofer."

BLACKPRINT: Mr. Brncic, under the guiding principle of "Defining Architecture," OLIV Architekten has specialised in the refurbishment of existing buildings for over twenty years. How did this come about?

Igor Brncic: This approach dates back to the founding phase of our firm. Back then, we deliberately chose a niche and addressed topics that other architects were only marginally interested in. None of us could have imagined how important the topic of sustainability would become. We also quickly realised that transforming existing buildings offers completely different surprises than building a new one, which is essentially created from scratch. Time and again, there's a moment when things come together in a new way and you notice how the transformation is being received in the neighbourhood. And this moment of surprise is significantly greater than with a new building. Through interaction, we've increasingly understood how closely the topic of revitalisation is connected to responsibility, with aspects such as society, climate, and resource management.

BLACKPRINT: How do you approach a refurbishment project? What questions do you ask yourself first and foremost?

Igor Brncic: Before we even think about architecture, we first ask what people need, what society needs more broadly. You can, of course, extend this to the real estate market and ask: What strategy is needed to make a building work? Only when these questions have been sufficiently answered do we begin to shape the architecture and adapt it to these requirements, never the other way around! Only then do we consider whether the existing building needs to be divided vertically or horizontally, expanded, densified, reshaped, or reversed. But the fundamental question that comes first is what the building must achieve to be accepted by society in the long term.

BLACKPRINT: This certainly also involves the question of what memories people associate with the existing building, right?

Igor Brncic: Absolutely! A very good example of this is the former Beck department store on Fürstenrieder Strasse in Munich. The building is integrated into a residential area, but had recently stood empty for almost 30 years and increasingly formed a derelict and conspicuous structure in the neighbourhood. As part of our planning, we completely redesigned the building and integrated new uses such as residential, office, and retail. And this transformation, the engagement with the building, the way in which the existing building was preserved, all of this has always been connected to the building's history. After the completion and reopening, the residents approached me and told me how they were there at the opening in the 1960s, how they had visited the building, and how pleased they are with the result now.

BLACKPRINT: In this project, you completely transformed an existing building...

Igor Brncic: Yes, that's one of the ways to deal with the existing structure. In other cases, however, it's also possible to continue things organically. At the former C&A building on Kaufinger Straße in Munich, for example, we are developing a mix of retail, offices, restaurants, and residential space. Around 75 percent of the shell will be preserved. Construction is just starting. And here, too, there's a lot of history, a lot of monuments, a lot of past history reflected in a building that's being built for the future.

BLACKPRINT: Revitalising existing department stores seems to be playing an increasingly significant role in your firm's portfolio. What’s driving this focus?

Igor Brncic: This development is of course no coincidence, considering how much the emergence of the department store has historically changed our society and our city centres, and how this role is being challenged by increasing digitalisation. In the future, department stores as foundations in the urban fabric will only exist in isolated cases. Accordingly, existing buildings must be adapted to today's requirements.

BLACKPRINT: You are currently also working on the refurbishment of the former Karstadt Sport building at Schlossgarten in Stuttgart. What are the challenges there, and which aspects are important to you?

Igor Brncic: The building used to be a classic department store and, accordingly, has a structure that can hardly be continued in this form for other uses. This particularly applies to aspects such as lighting, floor heights, and technical equipment. A key component of the planning is also the prominent urban location at the entrance to the pedestrian zone and in the immediate vicinity of the Schlossgarten and the soon-to-be-completed Stuttgart 21 main station. The design requirements were accordingly very high. Therefore, we developed a concept that completely changes the perception of the building and, at first glance, bears little resemblance to the existing building. Currently, the department store presents itself with a closed façade facing the pedestrian zone, and the covered Theatre passage blocks the view of the adjacent Schlossgarten to the rear. Instead, we want to open up the building with a wraparound transparent façade, thus enabling attractive retail and dining options. The Theatre passage will also be dismantled to create a visual axis to the park. The stepped, accessible roofscape with gardens, terraces, and atrium will also be a defining feature. As a result, urban space is completely redefined and a connection is created between the park and the pedestrian zone.

The transformation of the former Karstadt Sport store on Stuttgart's Königstraße creates a harmonious connection to the Schlossgarten park at the rear.

BLACKPRINT: What uses are being integrated?

Igor Brncic: In order to maximise the building's versatility, we have integrated gastronomic uses alongside retail and commercial activities. Initially, it will be used by the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament. If necessary, the office space can be flexibly adapted to the respective users.

BLACKPRINT: Back to the topic of sustainability: You said at the beginning that it's not just about energy consumption, but above all about creating buildings that will still be functioning and in use in 50 years. On the other hand, there is the effort to increasingly use sustainable building technology. How do you weigh the various aspects?

Igor Brncic: That always depends on the individual case. In general, however, we first ask how we can position the building in question so flexibly that it can move freely, that it can accommodate new uses such as residential, retail, or commercial use overnight without having to be demolished. Only then do I think about the use of building technology. I think OLIV Architekten differs significantly from other firms in this respect. The revitalisation of the Karstadt Sport building in Stuttgart is a good example here, too. We deliberately ensured that the future office use could be implemented with manageable ventilation and cooling expenditure; simply by ensuring that the façade allows cross-ventilation, thus returning people to a use that was normal and common a few decades ago.

Upon moving into the revitalised building at Schlossgarten in Stuttgart, the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament can look forward to a light-filled building with a variety of options for shopping and enjoying culinary delights.

BLACKPRINT: I ​​see a very pragmatic approach...

Igor Brncic: Yes, in a way, you could call it pragmatism. Instead, in recent years, there has been a widespread perception that sustainability is synonymous with a certain type of construction. Timber or timber-hybrid construction, for example, serves as a model. Essentially, however, this requires a high level of advanced technology, which is not always justifiable in terms of effort. Often, I can achieve significantly better results with a few simple means. In addition, with a timber-hybrid building, everything has to be meticulously planned down to the last detail. It becomes problematic if the use may have to change completely in the next 20 years. That will be very difficult, because each building component has a fixed location, so subsequent changes can only be implemented on a small scale. Apart from that, the question arises as to whether we can even permanently provide renewable resources in the required quantities.

BLACKPRINT: So ultimately, it's about the right balance between fundamental strategy, building structure, and the building technology used...

Igor Brncic: Yes, exactly! And that's why we're constantly rethinking which measures are worthwhile in which areas and what the cost-benefit ratio is in each case. If I find good solutions here, then I've already gained a great deal. In general, we pay attention to reducing the use of technology rather slowly, i.e., implementing a paradigm shift from high-tech to low-tech. And I'm convinced that we as a society also need to think more in this direction in order to reposition ourselves in terms of sustainability. The issue of design is also underestimated. Because only if architecture is accepted by people can it survive in the long term.

BLACKPRINT: Assuming you had the choice: Which building would you like to refurb?

Igor Brncic: There are many interesting buildings, but if it had to be just one, it would definitely be the Kaufhof building on Marienplatz here in Munich. The building, dating from 1972, isn't necessarily beloved, but it's still a defining element of Munich's architecture. I would love to think about what it could look like in the future.

BLACKPRINT: In parallel, you've also developed new construction projects in recent years, such as the M8 office building in Munich. What role does sustainability play here?

Igor Brncic: The building offers a highly flexible ground floor that could accommodate any type of commercial or retail use. Likewise, the building could also accommodate residential use without having to fundamentally change the structure. It was also very important to us to have an architecture that users can intuitively understand. Accordingly, I would predict that the building is ideally equipped to meet the demands of the future!

BLACKPRINT: On your website, you write that good architecture should be unpretentious. What do you mean by that?

Igor Brncic: That statement is primarily a criticism of an architecture that, first and foremost, seeks to do justice to itself. Of course, we also pursue very high design standards with our architecture. But that should never be the starting point. Instead, we should first and foremost ask about the needs of users and society, and only then consider what design is needed to achieve them. Otherwise, architecture becomes a pure end in itself and serves no higher purpose. But that also means that every building project we undertake is completely individual and unique. So, there is no pre-defined plan; the design always emerges from what the building needs at the time.

BLACKPRINT: Mr. Brncic, thank you for the interview!

The interview was conducted by Robert Uhde.