The one-story building with a plan in the shape of the letter U with an additional appendix hall connected to the main block by a long passage was erected on the territory of a former NATO missile base, turned into a complex of cultural institutions. The archive of the sculptor Erwin Heerich, who died in 2004, will be kept there, according to whose projects many buildings of Hombroich were built, including on the territory of the base.
But the most famous of them are located nearby - in the ensemble of the Hombroich Island Museum: these are 12 pavilions, most of which were built from recycled Dutch clinker bricks - and that is why Siza chose the same material for his construction.
One of the names of the pavilion is "Institute of Architecture", but it does not have any specific research or educational function. In addition to the archive rooms, there are three light-filled exhibition halls and a small auditorium for seminars and conferences - about 50 people. The fragmentation of the brick facades is opposed by the architect to the light and spacious interior, opened through panoramic windows into the natural environment. The simplicity of the forms reminds of the laconic monumentality of Heerich's buildings, whose memorial, in fact, was the building of Siza.
The Hombroich Rocket Base (which houses art workshops, research institutions and the Langen Foundation Museum, designed by Tadao Ando) and the Hombroich Island Open Air Museum are located near Düsseldorf in western Germany and are run by the Hombroich Island Public Foundation.
