Forschungszentrum BiK-F, Frankfurt am Main

A whole issue of the architectural magazine Bauwelt, being published in Berlin, was dedicated to the completed building. The Institutes of Pharmacology and Food Chemistry of the Goethe- Universität in Frankfurt am Main by Ferdinand Kramer, who had also built most of the other new buildings on the campus, soon advanced to a highly appreciated master work of modern postwar architecture – but later it was nearly forgotten. Many years of intensive use and neglected maintenance rendered the rehabilitation of the buildings indispensable. After a comprehensive renovation by the architects SSP Schürmann- Spannel of Bochum, the concrete structure with its striking brise-soleil elements on the south side and the lecture-hall cube detached from the main building, is not only again a convincing built monument, but also an exemplary example of a successful conversion. Where for many years students of pharmacology and food chemistry studied and experimented, 160 scientists of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) are researching the interaction of climate and biosphere. The book provides a detailed description of the building, which dates from 1957 and which was completely reconditioned by the office of SchürmannSpannel in the years 2009 to 2013. The pictorial section contains plans of the original and present condition as well as photographs especially made for this publication by Jörg Hempel. It is preceded by Fabian Wurm’s essay, which not only discusses the building in detail, but also addresses the pressing question of converting buildings from the time after World War II. Fabian Wurm, a free-lance journalist, studied literature and sociology. He was editor of the design magazines design report and form for many years. Since 2012 he is a lecturer for design history at the Academy of Visual Arts in Frankfurt am Main; prior to this he was a visiting lecturer at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. Jörg Hempel is a freelance architectural photographer, living in Aachen. Since 2007 he teaches architectural photography at the Hochschule Rhein-Main and the Hochschule Bochum, and prior to this he was a visiting lecturer for architectural photography at the Fachhochschule Dortmund.