This work features text in English and German. Building in a historical context: does the new have to live in the shadow of the old? Or is the architect allowed to make his own self-confident mark? Till Schneider and Michael Schumacher have answered this question very decisively with their offices for the KPMG Deutsche Treuhand-Gessellschaft. Their steel and glass structure is a plea for modern building in old surroundings. The architects were faced by a derelict site on the southern fringe of central Leipzig. The war had ripped open a massive gap near the town hall and the Reichsgericht, where Beethovenstrasse joins Petersteinweg. A block dating from the 19th century had to be completed, and an urban square concluded. Schneider and Schumacher looked for a characteristic solution. But they did not want to cite the cylindrical corner turrets that are so typical of Leipzig. They also chose not to organise the volume of the building symmetrically. Instead of this they opted for a smooth building with glazed facades. Distinct, sharp outlines meet up with stucco and ornaments. The large areas of glass shimmer as the light changes and the viewpoint shifts. They sometimes seem opaque, and sometimes dull, sometimes sealed off and sometimes transparent. In the daytime the facades of the surrounding buildings are reflected in the panes of glass, at night they open up a view of the filigree structure inside. To a certain extent, the KPMG building is intended as the antithesis of the stagey architecture of its neighbours, a counterpoint - glass versus stone. And yet here in Leipzig old and new fit together to form a whole: for all their determination Schneider and Schumacher's contemporary forms respond to the existing buildings, and take up their proportions and eaves heights. The KPMG building makes a firm statement that is a valuable contribution to the discussion about transparent corner sections that started at the time of Walter Gropius' and Adolf Meyer's Fagus factory from 1910/11 at Alfeld an der Leine.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, new university buildings were regarded as real showcase projects in Germany. With their help, it was hoped to catch up with the international building scene again after the severe destruction of the Second World War. However, deficiencies in the technical execution and also in the subsequent building maintenance often led to the fact that in the course of the years serious structural problems appeared more and more frequently in the former showcase projects, which in some cases even led to the demolition of former demonstrative projects. This opus volume presents such an aging university ensemble on the old campus of the RWTH Aachen, which could not only be saved, but also embodies a renaissance of high-quality urban development and sustainable architecture. This balancing act is thanks to the architects and engineers of the renowned SSP AG from Bochum. First of all, they used the building task to significantly reorganise the old campus area in terms of urban development and to uncover lost urban references. In a next step, they demolished a dilapidated multi-storey car park and built the new technical centre, the Technikum on its foundations. In doing so, they followed the highest construction standards and sustainability strategies down to the smallest detail. However, the architects were able to retain the neighbouring, defective high-rise building of the so-called Sammelbau of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. They stripped the high-rise down to its bare supporting structure and then refurbished it to the highest technical and ecological standards, just like the Technikum. In times when terms such as sustainability or building ecology are being used in an almost inflationary manner, the project presented here is a real model, because it not only speaks of high standards, but has in fact implemented the highest standards and because it has given the concept of re-use (ie: the recycling of old, dilapidated building substance, a sensuously appealing structural form and a long-term new utility).