Bernd Steinhuber Architekt

The Stoic City

The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff

MANUFACTURERS
Investwood, XAL, fr-one, kirkby design

PHOTOGRAPHS
Aldrian Bischoff

AREA
726.0 m2

YEAR
2018

LOCATION
Frankfurt, Germany

The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff

At Light & Building 2018 in Frankfurt, visitors encountered XAL in a minimalistic abstract city. It is the background, it is essential.

The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff

A city is not merely the sum of its structures, its ambiance, its participants and how they shape it. It consists of stories. It consists of history. It consists of frontiers and limits.

Where in earlier times there were walls made of stone, today is is capital that sets the boundaries. And it is the exclusivity of what lies within these boundaries that seems superficially desirable.

We absorb all of this, reduce it, abstract it. We tell the same stories of the city in different words.

The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff

The stoic central square, the pathways, the buildings, the peaceful, almost private interior of the pavilions, staged entrances and a shoulder-high wall running all around.

The view over this barrier is actually archetypal, and the need to engage with the “other” is a deeply-rooted need we all share. And for a brand, this is an opportunity.

It awakens the desire to take part, sparks interest in spaces for their light, and in space as a place for exchanges.

The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff

In minimalistic environments, it should always be light and its source that are the stars. This is the interplay that brings the product to life.

There is a trade fair outside the fence, and a special place behind that. the fair within the fair. The stoic city.


The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff
The Stoic City
© Aldrian Bischoff


The Stoic City
Plan 

Bernd Steinhuber Architekt
T +43 664 5460355
Bernd Steinhuber Architekt
FIPE Architects Ziviltechniker OG
T +43 316 811721
FIPE Architects Ziviltechniker OG
Bürgergasse 4, 1st floor, 8010 Graz, Austria