DasProjekt
125 years Bilfinger Berger
Mannheim, Germany
Text by Anneke Bokern

A City Built for Celebrations

The success of Bilfinger Berger, a construction company going global with 50,000 employees worldwide, which meanwhile advanced to a Multi Service Group with its corporate headquarters in Mannheim, is based on a longtime tradition in the handling of construction and providing operational services.
In June 2005 Bilfinger Berger celebrated its 125th anniversary. On the Maimarkt, an exhibition area just outside the city gates, a temporary 7000-m2 ‘Bilfinger Berger City’ was erected for several anniversary celebrations. DasProjekt, a young architecture and interior-design outfit from Hofheim am Taunus, led by Rolf Pauw and Carsten Schmidt, took on the architectural design of the event. Event-planning agency Voss + Fischer, hired by Bilfinger
Berger to develop the concept and organize the celebrations, selected DasProjekt to help with the job. ‘It was love at first sight,’ laughs Pauw. ‘The collaboration went wonderfully well. The agency already had a concept for the event, but no idea how it could be realized spatially. That’s where we came in.’ A three-dimensional plan of an imaginary city framed the events.
‘Our aim was to document and to present the various spheres of activity of our clients in an entertaining way,’ explains Pauw, adding that Voss + Fischer had already chosen a palette of bright, strong colours and that all graphics for the event were to be done by a graphic-design team. ‘But we were responsible for everything to do with architecture.’ According to Pauw, the greatest challenge was the ground plan. The layout had to include an event area with a stage, enough space for a diversity of exemplary projects, and room for ample seating, tables, bar areas and so forth. ‘We drew the layout for the roads and then added the buildings,’ says Schmidt, who calls the evolution of the city ‘an extrusion of the two-dimensional ground plan’.

Pauw and Schmidt covered over two thirds of the area with a 4500-m2, open-sided Delta tent. At the entrance, visitors were met by the so-called Wall of Fame. This installation, which was made out of curved partitions up
to 5 m high, flanked both sides of a meandering path and displayed the history of the firm. The Wall of Fame was a prelude to the main event area,
which occupied a 500-m2 piazza, similar to a market square, at the end of the winding path. In contrast to the curvaceous walls, the plan of the piazza was orthogonal. In line with the entrance was a stage with a rear wall
illuminated by lEDs, which formed the focal point. A large area fronting the stage provided the public with tables and chairs. DasProjekt custom-designed the boxlike, grey bars and counters that were spread across the piazza. ‘We even supervised the floral decoration on the counters to ensure that they matched the overall concept,’ says Pauw. The analogy of the city continued
in the form of ‘buildings’ surrounding the piazza and the network of streets that connected them. A number of grey cubes, the tallest of which was 5.5 m, accommodated cloakrooms, toilets and backstage facilities. An additional
seven structures were models of Bilfinger Berger’s core projects. On one side of the square stood a simplified version of the Svinesund Bridge, which links Sweden and norway. On the other was the nigerian Abuja Stadium,
and next to the stage stood the Alte Oper of Frankfurt. Accompanying each project were relevant details printed on the exterior of the buildings and an audiovisual presentation inside.
Pauw compares the construction of the exhibition site to that of a trade fair. ‘The project allowed us to apply all our architectural expertise. A major problem was wind, however. The site was close to the airport, and partition
walls, being very light, had to be well tethered. Before the event, a structural engineer checked to make sure everything was secure.’ The amount invested in this short-lived event is visible particularly in the ‘floor’ used throughout Bilfinger Berger City. ‘Originally, there was gravel everywhere, making it impossible for us to erect structurally sound buildings,’ says Schmidt. ‘Wooden flooring was out of the question, because of warping. We covered the entire area in tarmac especially for the event, and a road-marking company gave it a glossy surface. The city had to stand up to some 2000 visitors. The tarmac
was removed after the event was over.’ DasProjekt spent a good six months working on the architecture for the jubilee celebrations. Building the city took a month, the celebrations three days and dismantlement just one night. ‘That’s how event architecture is,’ says Pauw laconically. ‘It’s a fleeting business.’

‘Building the city took a month, the celebrations three
days and the dismantlement just one night.’ Rolf Pauw

Idea/concept: Voss + Fischer - www.voss-fischer.de
Architecture: DasProjekt – www.atelier-dasprojekt.de
Photographer: Voss + Fischer – www,voss-fischer.de
Client: Bilfinger Berger
lighting consultant: neumann & Müller
Graphic consultant: desres design group
Multimedia consultants: neumann & Müller
Manufacturers: De Boer, Susannah Martin Backdrops, Zeeh Design Messebau
Capacity: 2500 guests
Total floor area (m²): 4500 (tent), 2500 (outdoor area)
Duration of construction: 4 weeks
Start of event: 24 June 2005