LATTE - Magic at Brüsseler Platz

LATTE - Magic at Brüsseler Platz

Temporary intervention at Brüsseler Platz in Cologne

Architecture students from Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter near Bonn have once again created a temporary structure at Brüsseler Platz in Cologne. With the help of 6,000 screws and almost 2,000 roof battens, they created a sculpture spanning two food and drink stalls.
“The sculpture shows how simple means can create a great impact,” says Benedikt Stahl, Professor of Architecture at Alanus University. “Through this project, students can learn design processes that go beyond formal and functional approaches and also incorporate a social dimension,” the professor explains. Every urban planner must possess this ability. Stahl supervises the project together with his colleague Willem-Jan Beeren, Professor of Architecture and Art in Dialogue. “We will continue to follow the reactions to this work in public space with great interest,” says Stahl. The students created their work in collaboration with local residents, the operators, and mediator Detlev Wiener, and not least with the help of supportive residents, both young and old.
Starting Monday, 6 May, the stalls will be open daily from 7 p.m. in good weather. The sculpture will enrich Brüsseler Platz until the end of October this year.
In recent years, lecturers and students from Alanus University have already carried out public space installations at Brüsseler Platz twice as part of the “plan” architecture biennale, and these were enthusiastically received by local residents. In the bachelor’s degree program “Architecture and Urban Space” at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, the core subjects of interior space, architecture, urban planning, and engineering are repeatedly explored in greater depth through 1:1 scale projects.

Project leads
Prof. Willem-Jan Beeren, Prof. Benedikt Stahl

Project duration
05/2012