Parallel to the proposal for Location A (see Report 20/2018), an entry for the art-for-architecture competition for Location B in Pöcking was submitted. In the central stairwell of the teaching building, the concept entitled Leiterbahnen (Circuit Paths) envisages a mural painting that relates to the curriculum content of the Bundeswehr School for Information Technology.
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The stairwell is a sculpture. At the same time, the stairwell performs a function. Both of these aspects are reinforced: the sculpture is emphasised through a colour design, while the function is made an experience through a metaphor. At the same time, the two aspects of the stairwell are bound more closely together by reinforcing them in this way – because the function of the stairwell, to make a cluster of routes, is also the subject of the colour design.
There is an evident metaphor for a cluster of routes: the circuit paths of electronic connections. Information technology comprehends hardware, software and network or system architecture. Of these, the hardware is the most illustrative, and in this instance provides an image that can represent information technology as a whole. Furthermore, circuit paths are a metaphor for movement, connection and communication. This metaphor promotes the identification of people with the building.
The routes that lead through the stairwell and form a cluster there are always individual paths, Therefore the circuit paths have various colours. As a whole this produces a graded colour continuum that brings a high-tech impression, vivacity and freshness into the building. To this identification with the building is added motivation. In their meaning, the circuit paths are tied to the stairs, but also point beyond them into the space in that they continue on the walls.
The circuit paths will be painted directly onto the wall with Lascaux Artist acrylic paint and protected with a coat of matt lacquer.
Guidance system as an option
The motif of circuit paths and equally the colour concept can be the basis for a guidance system. The circuit paths gain the function of signposts, are applied to signs and continue as far as the various doors. In this way the whole building complex acquires a consistency of aesthetics and meaning.