The bank building has become a pivotal part of our cities and our suburbs. Both public and private; secure and yet welcoming, bank architecture needs to embody our desire to see that our money is secure; yet welcome us and make us feel a part of the arcane and often impenetrable financial process. A paradoxical mix of alienation and embrace, it is a challenge which has faced architects since the Renaissance. In this book Edwin Heathcote examines the roots of the architecture of banking - from the money changers' stalls to the palaces and banking houses of the Florentine dynasties; through the developments of modern banks and exchanges to the incredible changes and radical departures which recent banking buildings embody. Using some of the best recent examples of the architecture of banking and exchange, the author attempts to see patterns in the recurrence of certain banking archetypes which persist even today and to examine some of the buildings which set new precedents and innovative patterns for change and adaptation. Bank Builders covers the work of a great range of international architects including Foster Associates, KPF, Cesar Pelli, Günther Behnisch, Erick van Egeraat, Mario Botta and Frank O Gehry. In putting the work of these architects into the context of the work of their forebears, from John Soane to Otto Wagner, the author hopes to show that banks and financial institutions - despite their often conservative image - have been at the heart of some of the most interesting and radical architectural commissioning over the last century.In den letzten Jahren haben Banken und Finanzunternehmen die interessantesten und innovativsten Gebäude moderner Architektur in Auftrag gegeben. Diese Gebäude spiegeln nicht nur die Macht des Geldes wider, sondern gleichzeitig architektonische Vielfalt und Kreativität, die das moderne Stadtbild entscheidend prägt. Dieser Band betrachtet das breite Designspektrum der Bankgebäude und versucht, einen neuen Gebäudetyp in seiner Entstehungsphase herauszuarbeiten. Heathcote untersucht die historischen Vorläufer und die Entwicklung der Banken im 20. Jahrhundert - vom Traditionalismus zur Avantgarde -, wobei er Bankenarchitektur auch als Verkörperung des Unternehmensimage und als Marketingmittel betrachtet.