Opus 77 : Ferdinand Kramer / SSP SchurmannSpannel, Forschungszentrum BiK-F, Frankfurt am Main

Text in English & German. A whole issue of the architectural magazine Bauwelt, being published in Berlin, was dedicated to the completed building.

The Institutes of Pharmacology and Food Chemistry of the Goethe-Universitat in Frankfurt am Main by Ferdinand Kramer, who had also built most of the other new buildings on the campus, soon advanced to a highly appreciated master work of modern post-war architecture but later it was nearly forgotten.

Many years of intensive use and neglected maintenance rendered the rehabilitation of the buildings indispensable.

After a comprehensive renovation by the architects SSP Schurmann-Spannel of Bochum, the concrete structure with its striking brise-soleil elements on the south side and the lecture-hall cube detached from the main building, is not only again a convincing built monument, but also an exemplary example of a successful conversion.

Where for many years students of pharmacology and food chemistry studied and experimented, 160 scientists of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) are researching the interaction of climate and biosphere.

The book provides a detailed description of the building, which dates from 1957 and which was completely reconditioned by the office of SchurmannSpannel in the years 2009 to 2013.

The pictorial section contains plans of the original and present condition as well as photographs especially made for this publication by Joerg Hempel.

It is preceded by Fabian Wurm's essay, which not only discusses the building in detail, but also addresses the pressing question of converting buildings from the time after World War II.