Renzo Piano designed the Weltstadthaus in Köln, Germany, completed in 2005. Currently it is occupied by the Peek and Cloppenburg store. The main building is a standard rectangular department store that respects the old department store aesthetic. From this stone-clad store, an organic glazed shape wraps around the side and over toward the Schildergasse shopping district. It effaces the late Gothic Antoniterkirche, in perhaps an appropriate display of interaction between consumerism and religion. The decidedly modern vaulting on the Weltstadthaus’ dome could relate to the pointed Gothic arch.
The glass dome is supported in only a few places. It attaches on the fourth floor and rises to the full 36m of height untouched by the ceiling save for tension cables. The trusses are wood, prefabricated Siberian larch, and add a warm human touch to the metal and 6,800 pieces of overlapping glass.
This design fits nicely with previous designs for Peek and Cloppenburg, most notably the Berlin flagship store designed by Gottfried Böhm. That store uses a concrete exterior structure with a facade of glazing, rectangular yet similar to Piano’s idea.
(seier+seier– flickr/creative commons license)
(colr.com– flickr/creative commons license)
(Eoghan OLionnain– flickr/creative commons license)
(MobyDick– wikipedia/creative commons license)
(henrikbeckerkoeln– flickr/creative commons license)
