saai | Archive for Architecture and Engineering

Merkur department store
1958-1961

Merkur department store

As a closed block with a double trapezoidal base, the building borders Bismarckplatz on its southern square wall. Similar to the Stuttgart department store, the outer wall is fronted by a second façade, which, however, is divided by circumferential steel bands at the level of the storey ceilings and a vertical joint in the bend of the building. Goods are received at the rear of the department stores via two hydraulic lifts, which transport the arriving lorries to an underground level for unloading. The noisy and dirt-generating process of exchanging goods and empties has thus been transferred from the narrow street space into the building itself.

Immo Boyken, „Entwurfscharakteristika im Werk von Egon Eiermann aus der Zeit nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg“ , Diss., Universität Karlsruhe, Fakultät Architektur, Teil III, S. 174