Exterior application:
The colour streams are applied to the interior side of the façade’s skin. This creates a subdued, subliminal effect caused by the curved pattern in the glass. The white curves are not transparent: they are translucid. The transparent material of the colour streams appears to be backlit when viewed at night. The colour streams can also be used as light objects.

Interior application:
On the ground floor, the colour streams appear as transparent elements on the glass partitions to facilitate orientation. The colour streams can be integrated into the different functional areas in many creative ways. On the roof terrace, the streams are used as a colourless protective finish on the wooden boards, where they will, over time, take on a different hue and create a contrast to the wooden areas. These applications are optional.

Concept:

The Farbströme (colour streams) concept is conceived to give the Forum Confluentes an even stronger identity: By visualising the building’s layout on a different level, the colour streams emphasise the building’s sculptural form. They lend meaning to the Forum’s name by visualising, and thus communicating, the idea of confluence. The colour streams confirm the function of the Forum Confluentes by symbolising the intermingling of people and their cultural expectations and by turning this theme into a message. The colour streams form a conclusion by aligning the building’s form, name and function. The Farbströme artistic concept is a modular system that entirely adapts to the infrastructure and also exploits the infrastructure’s complexity:

Each single module, as the basic form, contains the whole message, regardless of where it is located and how it is used, even in the smallest possible application. With their three different colour schemes, the colour streams reference the three different services offered in the Forum, thus facilitating differentiation and orientation. However, the colour streams also emphasise those aspects that the three service areas have in common: being public spaces for visitors and sharing the idea of confluence and cooperation. The colours provide highlights in an architecture that celebrates whiteness by making the whiteness sing rather than overpowering it. The Farbströme concept is an invitation to all visitors to participate and to spread the building’s message.

The concept contains many different implementation options whose potential can be jointly explored by the artist, the architect and the project owner. The colour streams are open for both limitation and extension, for adaption and for additional ideas and needs. It would make sense to combine the concept with the communication design and the directional signage.

The concept is open for the needs of its three different ‘users’, who may not only use the building itself, but also the colour streams (Farbstöme), for their communication, from the façade to the smallest information sign or label. The concept is conceived to be implemented in cooperation with all three users since it will be most meaningful when applied consistently throughout the building and bringing everything together: by creating confluence as suggested by the name Forum Confluentes.