The ensemble of State Offices in Saarbrücken comprises an office building dating from 1956 to the north (today the State Office for Youth, Welfare and Pensions), the new build opposite occupied by the State Offices for Consumer and Health Protection and Safety at Work as well as a new smaller connecting building. As regards urban planning and functional content, the buildings form an independent quarter, which leads over to the Saar terraces. The three buildings surround a public courtyard with a water area, which is located in front of the cafeteria and gradually merges into a grove of trees and finally a tree-lined car park.
The laboratories and department rooms in the western section of the wide elongated new build are grouped around a planted atrium, whilst they are complemented with offices used for administrative work towards the east. The second, smaller new build, which replaces a dilapidated part of the existing complex and incorporates the cafeteria oriented towards the courtyard, defines the actual and formal centre of the complex. A glass hall connects the old building with this new wing. Towards the State Office for Consumer and Health Protection and Safety at Work in the south, the space between the buildings remains open and is used as a glass-roofed footpath. A glazed bridge on the first floor allows for short routes between the offices and the cafeteria.
The external appearance corresponds to the urban planning intention to create clearly defined spaces as clusters. Brass-coloured, reddish to greenish shimmering metal panels with a vertical structure and cut in, vertical window elements envelope the new builds, playing with their structural and spatial volumes. Their appearance thus gains independence, whilst merging with the existing brick building in terms of colour.
Location | Saarbrücken |
Competition | 1ˢᵗ prize 2002 |
Construction dates | 2004 - 2005 |
GFA | 9.109 m² |
Gross Volume | 35.237 m³ |