Location - Chemnitz, Germany
Architect - Murphy/Jahn Inc.
Client - METRO plus Grundst?cksver-mietungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Chemnitz KG
General Contractor - MRE Metro Real Estate Management GmbH (general manager); Seele GmbH & Co. KG (façade contractor)
Consultants - Werner Sobek Ingenieure GmbH (structural), Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH and Brandi Consult GmbH (MEP)
Photographer - Roland Halbe, Roland Halbe Fotografie

(click images for larger views)

Clarity of the retail purpose of this 5-story store won the unanimous praise of jurors. Laminated glass walls and a glazed roof create a fully transparent building that shows off merchandise and human activity by day. At night the transparent walls shine like monolithic billboards. Glazed, lighted canopies shelter the entrance to an adjacent train station, and a large cantilevered roof — also of glass — protrudes to form an “urban loggia” on the historic Neumarkt square. “The building is a sign,” said one juror. “It achieves a clearly read commercial demeanor without the use of signage.”