Bizarre Buildings Around the World: Nord LB building (Hannover, Germany)
There is a unique and bizarre building that I came across in Hanover Germany. This building is currently owned by Behnisch, Behnisch & Partners. It is the main headquarters for the bank called Nord/LB.
The building was designed with a futuristic intent that is eco-friendly yet pleasing to the eye. It was completed recently in 2004 and has baffled architects and individuals around the city alike. It really is a love hate building and what I mean by that is either someone likes it or they don’t. There seems to be no middle when asking around city. However, it has made an interesting landmark for tourists who come to the area and has helped grow Hanover’s tourist economy since the world economic collapse.
The building is made of mostly glass and steel boxes placed together and stacked upon one another. As you can see by the pictures to the right, it seems almost too simplistic. It was built by the company, to house the Hanover headquarters population of about fifteen hundred people. The design had these people in mind since they would be working in a cubicle office. So there is plenty of natural light that heats and cools the building depending on the air temperature outside and the transition of the glass from darker to lighter.
Some of the highlights that can be found in the building is a full service staff restaurant that has a roof in the shape of a butterfly. The wings of this butterfly across the roof of the restaurant spread to a towering twenty meters made from a material that allows the wings to change color depending on the position of the sun.
Since, this building sits between the nineteenth century historical district of Hanover, Germany and the residential modern area to the south it was the architect’s original goal to make it a transition building. How this was accomplished is a little odd to me, so I don’t see the perfect transition that the architect meant by that, but it is extremely eye catching architecture either way. It is a welcome addition to this beautiful city’s skyline when it lights up the night sky, and you are seeing its simplistic beauty on the city skyline it is truly inspiring.
