Renovation Of The Volksbank Headquarters The Volksbank headquarters building is a complex piece of architecture: it is a contemporary commercial space inserted into the tissue of an historical building, hidden behind Baroque facades. The link between two streets connecting two diffe- rent parts of the historical city centre, is the main architectural theme around which the project evolves. The ground floor integrates the public path, which enables pedestrians to pass throu- gh during banking hours. Bank counters are treated differently: bank customer business is slightly elevated on a dark podium. The path for passers-by is paved in light sto- ne and illuminated with natural light from shafts in the upper floors. The path is thus treated as an exterior space and as part of the city—a street of sorts. The main conceptual achievement of the project is its transgression of the standard pu- blic ground floor: a bank, which is usually ar- chitecturally introverted, is thus actively tran- sformed into an extension of public space.