Openness, Light, and Transparence:
The Art Collection
of Deutsche Bank Australia Receives a New Home
In
mid-2005, the moment will finally have arrived: Deutsche Bank Australia
will be moving into the office tower in downtown Sydney designed by the
star architect Sir Norman Foster. This event is also expected to provide
the company collection with fresh new impulses.
Sydney's skyline with new domicile of Deutsche Bank Australia (computer
simulation)
Every fifth Australian lives in
Sydney, which has a population of 4 million. Since 1974,
Deutsche Bank has been present on the fifth continent, employing thousands
of staff members in the dynamic and self-assured metropolis. Sydney's
skyline is known worldwide: the conically shaped
opera house, the
harbor bridge, and the skyscrapers of the
business district go to make up the city's characteristic appearance.
Along with a prospering economic development, art, culture, and
architecture are also flourishing in the "secret capital." While
Jeff Koons' monumental flower culture
Puppy, endowed with over 20,000 plants and situated at the harbor, has
already been greeting visitors to the westernmost country in the Asian
Pacific region since 1995, the future home of Deutsche Bank Australia will
be leaving its mark on the city's appearance from mid-2005 onwards. Thus,
an entirely new skyscraper is being built at
126 Phillip Street, designed by the British star architect
Sir Norman Foster, one which combines the demands of a contemporary office
complex with Sydney's own special characteristics.
|
West elevation 126 Philip Street,
Sydney (computer simulation)
|
Openness, light, and transparency stand at the center of
the design. The core of the 36-story
building will contain no carrying supports whatsoever; its blueprint is
not organized around the usual functions. Instead, Foster transferred the
entire core - the plumbing facilities, elevators, staircases, and various
shafts - into a complex of its own, which takes up the entire western
facade of the building. A unique design has come about in the process.
While glassed-in elevators rise up from the ground floor to the sky
between the two towers in the western part, bridges on every floor lead
over the highest atrium in Australia to the main building in the east,
which contains the actual office spaces. At the same time, the passages
between the individual complexes further internal communication.
Generously constructed, they house lobbies and reception and waiting areas.
|
Design for stairway, 126 Philip Street
Sir Norman Foster is an architectural visionary whose buildings reflect his
investigations into history, location, and functional requirement with
tremendous elegance and precision. Among his most famous projects are the
reconstruction and expansion of Berlin's Reichstag, which was destroyed in
1945. In the
glass dome, which has since become one of the city's major trademarks,
visitors can walk above politicians' heads along the spiral-formed
galleries. At the same time, the spaces Foster designs are spaces for
creative thought. His design for 126 Phillip Street creates a challenging
framework for innovative working and living; this is also reflected in the
building's stark, step-formed crown; like a ladder to heaven, it is
continued upwards in the masts of an open-work steel structure. For
Deutsche Bank Australia, which will be moving into eight floors of the
complex in 2005, 2003 was a record year, with a gain in profit of over 40
percent over the best previous results. Correspondingly, the move not only
signalizes hoisting the flag on one of Sydney's most prominent locations,
but also the steady development of corporate culture.
Kate Abrahams vor
"Ken Whisson's
Circus with Vet and Yellow Magician" (1994)
Deutsche Bank Sydney 2004
"The move to our new
building will reflect Deutsche Bank's footprint in the Australian market
and demonstrates that we are leaders in innovation," Kate Abrahams, Head
of Communications and Marketing of Deutsche Bank Australia, remarked. "We
hope that … we can mirror this image through our art collection. In doing
so, we can express our commitment to the local art community with
commissionings from our local artists, but we can also demonstrate our
global culture though our international pieces." As for many of her staff,
art in the workplace is a part of everyday life for Abrahams. At the
bank's present location,
Grosvenor Place, Abrahams also had to learn how to deal with the various
reactions to the works exhibited.
Entalura Nangala, Ohne Titel, 1987
Deutsche Bank Collection, Australia
[1]
[2]
|
