This design is inspired by the artistic work of Swiss artist and architect Max Bill. Bill was a proponent of Concrete Art, and while the ‘concrete’ in his artistic work arose from the compositional order of line, surface and colour, in architecture he saw the practical use and the physical structure as the bases of the ‘concrete’ form. For him the external appearance was directly determined by the internal spatial structure; the façade was the outer face of the inner wall.

However, this idea is no longer readily transferable to the present. Façades are now multi-layered wall constructions, so any attempt to depict an internal structure inevitably takes on a pictorial character. The same applies to the functional aspect of an office building: its infrastructure must be fully oriented towards flexibility and change.

The explicit representation of this dilemma of a pictorial surface set in front of indeterminate service systems and a concealed construction has, for us, become a concrete statement of contemporary architecture. The acceptance of the building surface as both image and communicative medium allows it to serve as a direct illustration of the reality of our technical and cultural situation. The reference to Bill’s artistic work points to progressive discussions about the concrete and is to be understood as a tribute to the Swiss artist.