As a "synthesis of three" the
Bayer Headquarters is an exemplary project. A tall, colonnaded
portico leads to a full-height atrium that cuts, slightly off-center,
into the elliptical office block, the latter narrow enough so
workers are at most 12m from the exterior wall's natural light
(a code requirement). The double skin utilizes inner and outer
curtain walls, louvers adjacent to the inner and the outer canted
to get rid of heat gain. As mentioned earlier the double facade
achieves yearly passive heating a cooling while giving the building
its aesthetic expression and a human scale. In these we see how
Jahn's architectural approach arose from situations particular
to a place and time, essentially displacing his practice from
Chicago. If Chicago's architects can learn one thing from Jahn's
buildings and words it should be to look for a design process
in response to local concerns: climatic, social, and political.
