Rathaus Marl

In February 1958, the Dutch architects van den Broek/Bakema won the limited European competition for the new Marl town hall. They saw the new town hall as a “town crown” around which the still to be planned city centre were to be developed at low height. The first plan provided for four different towers for the various departments, of which, however, only two were built.
A central public building and a folded truss reinforced-concrete hall accommodating the chambers are at these towers’ foot. The folded truss roof, consisting of V-shaped folds, has a free span of more than 60m. On its ground floor, the sculptures museum Glaskasten has shown a selection of its municipal collection since 1979.
The two towers are the first suspension high-rise buildings in Germany. On the massive foundations, there is one concrete core with staircases and lifts each. This core bears the roof structure, reminding one of mushroom heads. The floors are docked into the inner concrete shafts, hung on concrete members at the the edges and connected with the roof structure. The suspension members determine the facade’s form outside. The towers and the folded truss can balance subsidence damages.
What was called a daring design turned out to be problematic in use. The suspension members didn’t withstand the increasing environmental and weather-related impact, so that they had to be reinforced by steel tie rods in the 1980s. This left the facade more or less intact; only the original silhouette of the tower roofs was changed.

Author: Patrizia Tomza / editorial baukunst-nrw
Last changed on 22.07.2020

Categories:
Architecture » Public Buildings » Administrative/Town Halls