Jahn's "synthesis of three",
a response to Germany's political and social demands, explains
his firm's lack of work in Chicago and large amount of European
work. The environmental codes of Germany are unequaled in the
large midwestern metropolis which doesn't contend with the minimal,
and expensive, energy situation that Germany's politicians have
been forced to deal with. From a social standpoint an architecture
of transparency is incompatible with a city that deals with violence
through the creation of almost impermeable enclosures. For instance
Jahn's highly transparent entry (emobdying some devices used
in the Bayer Headquarters) for the Illinois Institute of Technology's
student union does not work in an area bordering on low-income
housing projects inhabited with gangs. Rem Koolhaas's winning
design, a mostly solid box with selective openings generated
by circulation patterns across the site, even includes an enclosure
for the "L" platform above the building, rationalized
as a practical device to control noise though more so a symbol
of safety and protection.
