Editorial Reviews

The new building for the Alfred-Wegener-Institut fur Polar und Meeresforschung, named after Alfred Wegener, the famous geo-scientific pioneer, is near the city centre by the commercial harbor, not far from warehouses and other industrial buildings. What is striking is the unusual facade: a pattern is made with glazed tiles in white, grey and black, seeming more regular than it actually is. The architects--pictorially speaking--have set up poles at the corners of the plot and stretched fabric between them.