ARCH+ features 7: Jürgen Mayer H.
What is the role played by architectural styling in the social interaction of its users? What is an architectural design capable of achieving terms of urban planning?
These questions formed the subject of discussion between the ARCH+ editorial team and Andre Santer from the architectural bureau Jürgen Mayer H. in respect of the "Metropol Parasol" project in Seville.
The extraordinary creation constructed by Bureau Jürgen Mayer H. in Seville is, according to Andre Santer, "a place with a character of extreme openness". The Metropol Parasol project lies directly in the geometric centre of the historic inner city, opening a dialogue with the existing spaces and interacting with them without hesitation: "The population embraced the architecture right from the start", according to Santer. It has been used as a backdrop for assemblies, events and Spanish youth protest demonstrations, but its spaces, divided over different levels and partially shaded, are also appreciated and used by families and the elderly.

The population identified with the former marketplace to such a degree that fences temporarily installed by the investor were simply ignored. For Santer, this confirms that the Metropol Parasol project is a "provocative motor for transformation: Democracy follows form".

Picture:
Project Manager Andre Santer was in charge of the Metropol Parasol project throughout the construction period.
Andre Santer on the subject of the threshold: "Thresholds are the places where the essential things in life are played out, as nowhere else do we come face to face with the fundamentally unfamiliar with such little concern that a connection is formed, out of which something new is born."

(photos: David von Becker)
© 2020 S. Siedle & Söhne OHG
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