The most beautiful workplace in the world

The new tower at 9 Dekalb Avenue is more than 300 metres high and will be the tallest building in the New York borough of Brooklyn once it is completed. Markus Wilmers visits the construction site at least once a week. The head of the New York-based company MW-Skins is responsible for the construction of the façade of the new skyscraper. In this interview, the 44-year-old architect explains how he made his way from a village of thirty inhabitants in the Sauerland region of Germany to an office (his office!) in downtown Manhattan - and what role his studies at FH Aachen played in the process.

Markus Wilmers initially studied civil engineering. "But I quickly realised that it wasn't the right thing for me." The Faculty of Architecture was also housed in the same building on Bayernallee at the time, and the young student flirted with the idea of changing degree programmes - which earned him derisive comments from his fellow students: "What do you want to do with architecture later? Build skyscrapers in New York?" For example, yes.

But the path across the pond was not easy. During his studies, he wanted to spend a semester in New York to complete practical training in an architecture firm. "The plan was to sell my car and my motorbike to finance the semester abroad," he says. But the car burnt down, the motorbike was stolen, the cash was empty - and the plan couldn't be implemented. For the time being. A second attempt worked out, also thanks to the good contacts he had already made during his FH studies. In New York, he collected material that he used for his diploma thesis; it was about the temporary use of roofs, for example for gardens or film screenings.

From Aachen to New York

Markus Wilmers completed his degree in architecture at the FH in 2008. He remembers: "The graduation ceremony fell on my birthday. The day after, I started writing applications and two weeks later I had my first job in New York." But even this attempt was not crowned with success: the financial crisis in the USA was primarily a property crisis, and the situation in the construction industry was correspondingly bad. And so, after a few months, the young architect found himself unemployed. "The cost of living in New York is very high, I could no longer afford it. So I went back to Germany to work in construction and earn money."

A few months later, he made his next attempt, and this time luck was on his side: "I got a good job offer straight away from an engineering firm in Stuttgart that has a branch in New York and specialises in building façades," he reports. The now 44-year-old worked for various construction companies for a total of ten years before setting up his own office in 2019. MW-Skins now has four full-time and two part-time employees and focuses on developing challenging and technically sophisticated solutions for building façades.

The challenge of constructing façades can be summarised with a comparison: Just as the skin, as the largest organ of the human body, fulfils vital tasks, the façade of a building is far more than just a decorative accessory. The "outer skin" regulates the temperature and humidity inside, serves as protection, is an essential part of the building's technical equipment and, last but not least, ensures that a building can be operated in an environmentally friendly manner. This is a challenging task even for a detached house - and even more so for skyscrapers that are several hundred metres high. In the planning phase, a lot of things are modelled on the computer; for tall buildings, tests are also carried out with small models of the buildings and their surroundings in the wind tunnel, for example when it comes to wind load and inflow. "For complex projects, we start by building mock-ups," explains Wilmers. These are 1:1 scale models that are used to test the appearance ("visual mock-ups") and function ("performance mock-ups") of the façade. They analyse how the building skin can cope with pressure fluctuations and the effects of the weather.

Energy efficiency as a challenge

"Our tasks in a project can be very different," explains Markus Wilmers. In addition to façade development for large-scale projects, MW-Skins also takes care of construction supervision and defect rectification. Another business area will become even more important in the coming years. "From 2025, stricter guidelines regarding the energy efficiency of buildings will apply in New York," reports Wilmers. This means that façades will have to be refurbished on a large scale. In general, the use of innovative materials and modern processes plays a decisive role in façade construction. "Here in New York, we are among the world's best architects," says Markus Wilmers. The world of façade design is small, so the network is close-knit.
"Of course, it's ideal if we can develop a façade together with the responsible architect and the client as early as the concept phase," he emphasises. Then form and function can form a harmonious connection - as with the new tower in Brooklyn, where MW-Skins is working closely with SHoP Architects and JDS Developments. On Dekalb Avenue, for example, the façade is made up of different shapes, colours and materials so that the new building is not only state of the art in terms of building technology, but also blends in aesthetically with its Brooklyn surroundings. Markus Wilmers' eyes sparkle when he talks about the project. He then has to get going again, to his construction site several hundred metres above the ground, with a view of the Manhattan skyline.

Text: Arnd Gottschalk