Child and Youth Centre

Dating from 1912, this house was built originally as a chemist's shop and dwelling. From the late 1970s on, it became inhabited by squatters. They managed to stay put until 2002, when the house's owner, the Helene-Pfleiderer-Stiftung, began coaxing the tenants to move out and initiated the plan to convert the house into a council-run youth centre. Both foundation and council preferred not to demolish the clinker-faced structure. The elements added around the original building push forward strongly like a range of folded mountains. The only feature that stands out from the layered composition is an emblematic tower that rises boldly, its topmost level used as a viewing platform. Although the rather gruff, offbeat, jagged architecture testifies to the influence of Günther Behnisch, the youth centre as a whole radiates a distinctive style that combines the unconventional with professional discipline.