Biografie

Lo Studio di architettura GMP von Gerkan, Marg + Partner
Nuovo Palacongressi di Rimini. La filosofia architettonica

GMP di Amburgo

Fondato nel 1965 dagli architetti Meinhard von Gerkan e Volkwin Marg, entrambi professori di architettura alle Università di Braunschweig e Aquisgrana, lo Studio di architettura GMP von Gerkan, Marg + Partner ha conquistato notorietà internazionale per la realizzazione di grandi opere in ogni parte del mondo; oggi si avvale di altri cinque soci, occupa 280 collaboratori, ha la sede principale ad Amburgo e sedi distaccate a Berlino, Aquisgrana e Francoforte. Recentemente sono state aperte sedi a Pechino, Shanghai e Hanoi.
Le competenze della GMP spaziano da progetti urbanistici a grande scala, come la città di fondazione Luchao nei pressi di Shanghai in corso di realizzazione, a progetti di grandi infrastrutture ed edifici singoli, oltre a oggetti di design e arredamento.
Tra i progetti realizzati dalla GMP, gli aeroporti di Berlino, Stoccarda ed Amburgo, la sede europea dell'Ente Brevetti a Monaco, la Fiera di Lipsia con annesso centro congressuale e i padiglioni delle Fiere di Hannover e Düsseldorf.
In Cina sono stati recentemente inaugurati i quartieri espositivi e congressuali di Shenzen e Naning.
Sempre in Cina, in occasione delle Olimpiadi del 2008 di Pechino, la GMP, tra le 15 maggiori “firme” globali dell’architettura contemporanea mondiale che hanno partecipato ai concorsi indetti dalla capitale per progettare nuovi edifici, realizzerà la nuova ala del Museo Nazionale.
Gli ultimi Campionati del Mondo di Calcio in Germania hanno visto lo studio GMP protagonista della ristrutturazione dell'Olympiastadion di Berlino, l’impianto che ha ospitato la finale dei mondiali fra Italia e Francia.
Inoltre, gli architetti della GMP hanno anche progettato il nuovo stadio di Colonia e la profonda ristrutturazione di quello di Francoforte. Lo studio amburghese è ora impegnato nella realizzazione di un impianto sportivo anche in Cina, in vista delle olimpiadi 2008 e del Dubai Sports City, una 'città dello sport' con quattro impianti: uno per il calcio, uno per il cricket, un palasport ed un'arena.
In ambito di architettura ferroviario la GMP ha progettato la stazione di Spandau e la nuova “Lehrter Bahnhof” a Berlino la stazione principale della capitale tedesca inaugurata recentemente.
Con il progetto della Nuova Fiera di Rimini sotto la direzione del Professor Volkwin Marg e in collaborazione con l'architetto Clemens Kusch lo studio GMP realizzò nel 2001 la sua prima importante opera in Italia.
Al progetto della Fiera riminese si sono poi aggiunte, in questi anni, altre commesse nel nostro Paese, tra le quali l'aeroporto di Ancona, l'ospedale di Verona, gli ampliamenti dei quartieri fieristici di Verona ed Arezzo, e ora il nuovo Palacongressi di Rimini.

THE PRACTICE
The architectural practice founded by Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg in 1965 now consists of six additional partners and more than 300 employees in nine offices in Germany and abroad.
gmp is one of the few practices with a generalist position, which takes responsibility for a project from the design idea and its realization right through to the interior design.
In the past forty years Meinhard von Gerkan, Volkwin Marg and their partners have planned and constructed buildings in most major German cities.
They have designed small scale homes, hotels, museums, theatres and concert halls, office buildings, commercial centres and hospitals as well as research and educational facilities, buildings for transportation, trade and industry buildings and urban master plans.
gmp became internationally known as a team of airport architects when, in 1975 the Berlin-Tegel building with its drive-in airplane terminal for "stacked parking" was established. This innovative design has been further developed to transform the departure and arrival halls at Stuttgart and Hamburg airports.
They are internationally recognised not only for their projects like the New Trade Fair in Leipzig, the Rimini Exhibition Centre or the Christ Pavilion for the EXPO 2000, but also for their designs. Key examples are the designs for the reconstruction and modernisation of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the RheinEnergie Football Stadium in Cologne or Berlin Central Station, which was completed in 2006.
gmp has succeeded in winning more than 400 prizes in national and international competitions, among them more than 200 first prizes and numerous awards for exemplary architecture. More than 230 buildings have been constructed by gmp worldwide.
Among others, the exhibition and congress centres in Nanning and Shenzhen, the Shanghai-Pudong museum and the Zhongguancun Cultural Centre in Beijing have been realized in China. Other projects are under construction or in planning stage, for example the Foshan Sports Park, the Chongqing opera and the Chinese National Museum in Beijing.
Von Gerkan, Marg und Partner have demonstrated town-planning competence with their visionary proposals for the urban masterplan of Bucharest, the projects "Stuttgart 21" and "Frankfurt 21" for the Deutsche Bahn as well as numerous urban projects in China, including the planning of Lingang New City.
Aside from Germany, gmp is currently also involved in projects in China, Vietnam, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Luxemburg and Latvia, to name a few.
Philosophy
Our ideal is to design in such a reduced form, that the results endure content and time. Formal restriction and uniformity of materials contribute to this standpoint because we understand obviousness as a categorical imperative.
We want to design a house simply as a statement, to form it as a durable cover for the variety of human existence.
With a critical distance from recent architectural expressions, we try to avoid expressionist forms which are only derived from artistic caprice, without reference to use, construction and functionality. The media renames this traditional simplicity as "new" simplicity.
This purism carried to extremes, expressed as a denial of information in drawings and as severely barren buildings, remains alien to us.
We want a reduction which is based on plausibility and self-evidence and has to integrate supposed stylistic inconsistencies provoked by building task and site.
For the conception of buildings and interiors the positions of dialogical design are relevant as the guidelines of our architectural understanding:

- Simplicity
- Variety and uniformity
- Identity with the location
- Structural order

"The development of appropriate and acceptable answers and solutions for problems demands an openness for dialogue and the adaptation of one's standpoint to changing conditions.
Society and its complex political and economic mechanisms decide what is being built in what fashion.
We architects have not only the obligation, but the responsibility to lay ourselves open to this dialogue and take part in the discussions with a firm conviction."
Senior Partners

In the year 1965 Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg established the architects´ co-partnership gmp. Already in their years of study they had worked together successfully and decided to continue their partnership after the diploma at the University in Braunschweig. After a short period their first large project started – the Berlin-Tegel Airport.


Meinhard von Gerkan, Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Dipl.-Ing. Architekt BDA
Born on January 3rd, 1935 in Riga/Latvia.
1964 - Diploma in Architecture at the University Carolo-Wilhelmina at Braunschweig.
since1965 - Freelance architect together with Volkwin Marg.
More than 230 completed buildings.
More than 400 national and international competition awards together with Volkwin Marg, incl. more than 200 1st prizes.
Numerous awards for outstanding buildings.
Numerous publications in Germany and abroad.
Considerable involvement in competition juries and feasibility studies.
1972 - Appointment to the Free Academy of Arts, Hamburg.
1974 - Appointment to the University Carolo-Wilhelmina at Braunschweig as professor/chair A for design.
Director of the Institute for Architectural Design A.
1982 - Appointment to the board of the Jürgen-Ponto-Foundation, Frankfurt.
1988 - Visiting professor at the Nihon University, Tokyo/Japan.
1993 - Visiting professor at the University of Pretoria/South Africa.
1995 - American Institute of Architects, Honorary Fellow, USA.
1995 - Honoured by the Mexican Architectural Society.
2000 - Recipient of the Fritz-Schumacher-Award.
2002 - Honorary Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.
2002 - Recipient of the Romanian National Award.
2002 - Recipient of the Honorary Doctorate by the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the Philipps-University, Marburg.
2003 - Member of Convent Chairmanschip of the "Bundesstiftung Baukultur“, Berlin.
2004 - Recipient of the "Plakette" of Freie Akademie der Künste (Free Academy of Arts), Hamburg.
2005 - - Grand Award of the Association of German Architects (BDA).
2005 - Recipient of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Design conferred by the Christian University in Chung Li/Taiwan.
2007 - Recipient of the Honorary Degree of Professor conferred by the East China Normal University College of Design, Shanghai/China.
2007 - Recipient of the Degree of Visiting Professor conferred by Dalian University of Technology, Architecture and Art College, China.


Volkwin Marg, Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Architekt BDA
Born on October 15th, 1936 in Königsberg/East Prussia, childhood in Danzig.
1964 - Diploma in Architecture at the University Carolo-Wilhelmina at
Braunschweig.
since 1965 - Freelance architect, together with Meinhard von Gerkan.
More than 230 completed buildings.
More than 400 national and international competition awards
together with Meinhard von Gerkan, incl. more than 200 1st prizes.
Numerous awards for outstanding buildings.
Numerous publications and lectures in Germany and abroad on architecture, urban planning and cultural politics.
Considerable involvement in competition juries and feasibility studies
1972 - Appointment to Freie Akademie der Künste (Free Academy of Arts), Hamburg.
1974 - Appointment to German Academy for Urban and Environmental Planning.
1975-1979 - Vice President of the Association of German Architects (BDA).
1979-1983 - President of the Association of German Architects (BDA).
1986 - Appointment to the Chair of Town Planning, Aachen University of Technology.
1996 - Recipient of the Fritz-Schumacher-Award by the Alfred Töpfer
Foundation F.V.S.
2004 - Recipient of the "Plakette" of Freie Akademie der Künste
(Free Academy of Arts), Hamburg.
2005 - Grand Award of the Association of German Architects (BDA).
2006 - Grand DAI (German Architects and Engineers Association) Award for Building Culture.