Dozens of airports and famous skyscrapers were built according to his designs – the famous German architect Helmut Jahn died in the United States, where he lived permanently, in an accident at the age of 81.
A fateful meeting
Helmut Jahn was a native of the German city of Nuremberg, but lived most of his life in the United States. His American dream came true rather quickly – after studying at the Technical University of Munich he went to continue his studies in Chicago – he was attracted by monumental tall buildings made of steel and glass, and in the ruined post-war Germany such, of course, did not exist. In addition, his own style at that time was formed under the influence of the Bauhaus legend Mies van der Rohe, the last director of the school in Dessau, who also lived in the United States, where he had emigrated from Nazi Germany.
Jan’s early work impressed the master so much that he not only invited Jan to work in the prestigious architectural bureau C. F. Murphy Associates, but made a joint project with him – a complex of buildings of the Federal Center in Chicago, made in the trademark international style of van der Rohe. This refined functionalism was later adopted by his master.
“Father of Skyscrapers.”
Most of Helmut Jahn’s buildings are several hundred meters high, for which he was nicknamed the “father of skyscrapers.” He designed the Soni Center on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, the Post Tower in Bonn, home of Deutsche Post DHL, the 82 m tall Skyline Tower in Munich and the Messe Frankfurt.
Jan’s predilection for futurism was not accidental – he adored looking into the future, constantly talking about the need to develop architecture. “Architecture is like science or technology. It is also infinite,” Yang believed. Jan designed the airport terminals in Bangkok and Chicago, as well as the Cologne/Bonn airport. In recent years, he has worked extensively on projects in Qatar, where, among others, he designed the Islamic Cultural Center of Fanar.
Helmut Jahn was a passionate yachtsman and participated several times in the Farr 40 Sailing World Championships and in 2012 together with his team he won first place and was crowned world champion.
A high architectural bar for Berlin
Berlin’s current mayor Michael Müller paid tribute to “one of the most important architects of our time”. He pointed out that Helmut Jahn will be remembered in Berlin above all for the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, with which he was able to give the newly developing city district a distinctive flair.
With his futuristic vision of an open-air urban forum and his unusual tent roof design, he said, Jahn raised the architectural bar high for the German capital.