David Chipperfield – Ernsting Service Centre

The peaceful monolithic language of Chipperfield’s architecture is evidenced in his design for the third and final building in a complex for the German clothing retailer Ernsting. Chipperfield’s building stands on a greenfield site in the small town of Coesfeld-Lette, just west of M nster; its companions are two distribution centers built in the late 1990s by Fabio Reinhardt and Bruno Reichlin with Santiago Calatrava, and by Shilling Architects. Chipperfield’s structure completes the Ernsting compound and provides office space for business and retail managers as well as a Research & Development department. Christian Richters’ and Edmund Sumner’s photographs of Chipperfield’s architecture reveal its harmonious relationship with the organic curves of Peter Wirtz’s landscape design, while Jay Wolke’s photographic studies of the workplace illustrate the highly successful collaboration between client and architect that created a freedom-filled place for Ernsting’s employees to think and work.