The Mainz City Hall is unique. It is the work of a great architect who, in the late phase of his career, is breaking new architectural ground yet again. In his search for a form, for an adequate expression for the town hall of a city that had lacked one for centuries, Arne Jacobsen abandoned what for him was a proven and familiar architectural language. The qualities as well as peculiarities of the Mainz City Hall lie in the building's manner of bringing together its functional and symbolic purpose in a complex location into a distinctive architectural form. Jacobsen ventures into difficult subjects such as monumentality and representation and attempts to reconcile them with a human scale and measured spaces.
Forced modernization to contemporary working environments and fads cannot do justice to the work. The Mainz City Hall is not a comfortable monument. It is an idiosyncratic building that must be preserved for future times with careful means. The design approach follows the maxims: Appreciate value, maintain substance, promote culture of use and cautiously modernize, adapt and supplement. In addition to the technical and energetic renovation measures, the design focuses on spatial opening and functional interventions while preserving the character of the existing building.
Mainz 2014
Fthenakis Ropee Architektenkooperative
