PRODUCTION HALL TRUMPF HETTINGEN BY BARKOW LEIBINGER

Trumpf GmbH the world largest manufacturer of high tech machine tools will be expanding their existing branch factory near the village of Hettingen in the Swabian Alb.

Situated in a picturesque valley this will be the second addition undertaken by Barkow Leibinger the first (shops and offices of 1500 sqm.) was done in 2009.

A new master plan anticipates the construction of new production and assembly in four phases.

In July 2013 the first of these phases, a new production hall with 3400 sqm, was realized after only 13 months of construction.

Organized as a simple repetitive shed construction of seven bays the production hall is bracketed by two stories of offices (to the north) and a drive-through loading bay (to the south).

For the production and assembling of oversized flatbed laser machines a column free and flexible space was required. The bays measure 24m in width and 13m at the highest point of the shed.

The steel framework of the roof construction allows north-facing skylights within the structural depth; together with the 3m high strip window at ground level they provide daylight for the working areas.

The permanent long façade facing the Lauchert Creek and valley is articulated as a gently folded origami of corrugated metal and glass to scale the factory building to the neighboring singlefamily houses with pitched roofs.

The office front is integrated into the shed volume but has a mater of fact gridded façade.

The roof as a 5th facade is planted with local vegetation to better integrate into the scenic valley.

Location: Hettingen, Germany 
Architects: Barkow Leibinger 
Architect In Charge: Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger 
Project Team: Tobias Wenz (project architect), Andreas Lang, Hiroki Nakamura, Ina Reinecke, Florian Steinbächer, Ludwig Uphues 
Construction Management: Kerler, partner architekt ingenieure 
Structural Engineer: IB Breinlinger 
Mechanical Engineer: Henne & Walter 
Energy Design: Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH 
Electrical Engineering: Müller & Bleher 
Building Physics: Horstmann, Berger 
Landscape Architect: Capatti Staubach 
Underground Engineering: Ingenieurbüro Beck 
Area: 3,400 sqm 
Year: 2013 
Client: TRUMPF GmbH & Co. KG 
Photographs: Ina Reinecke

OLE SCHEEREN AMONG THE WINNERS OF THE NEW MEDIA CAMPUS FOR AXEL SPRINGER

German architect Ole Scheeren has been selected as one of the winners of the architecture competition for the future media campus of Axel Springer SE, one of Germany’s most influential and dynamic media enterprises, next to Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Bjarke Ingels/BIG.

Ole Scheeren’s design for the 60,000 square meter complex in Berlin presents a contemporary counterpart to the historic Axel Springer Tower and an expressive vision for a new collaborative space and identity for the digital media company. The architecture reflects the symbolic resonance with the city’s urban context.

The historically charged site is located along the edge of the former Berlin Wall, which once divided the city and the world, directly opposite the existing Axel Springer Tower, then rising defiantly above the Wall. At the core of the new building floats an urban-scale void, establishing a visual axis between former East and West and conceptually reuniting the two sides. The building emerges as a symbol of transparency and historic awareness.

A “Collaborative Cloud” forms the heart and nucleus of the building and manifests itself as the conceptual and spatial identity of the new headquarters. Identity is defined not as an object, but as space – a physical void is carved to create flexible permeable places for imagination, collaboration, and interaction. Standardized flexible work spaces are arranged along the perimeter of the facetted building envelope, which dissolve and merge into zones of informal work environments within the Cloud.

“In an age where digital work can be performed anywhere, architecture takes on the critical role of bringing people together”, says Ole Scheeren. “The Collaborative Cloud not only forms an actual space of shared ideas and social interaction, but also projects its open image as a powerful gesture towards the city, reuniting a multiplicity of enterprises in a space of shared digital identity.” A diverse array of urban activities and amenities invite inhabitation and interaction with the city and surrounding public domain.

The ground levels of the building form a civic base, a market-place like environment for gatherings, and a partly sunken concrete-scape offers a multi-level surface for exhibitions, film screenings and ad-hoc urban activities. A public “passage”, one of Berlin’s ubiquitous typologies, traverses the building and connects the two surrounding public plazas. An extensive garden covers the plinth level and embraces the building, while a rooftop space provides a special area for events, with an outdoor terrace offering views across the city of Berlin.

Besides a series of new projects in Europe and the United States, Büro Ole Scheeren’s international portfolio includes a range of city-defining structures and cultural projects currently under construction, including the headquarters for China’s oldest art auction house near the Forbidden City in Beijing; Angkasa Raya, a 268 meter tall building of floating rectangular volumes in the heart of Kuala Lumpur; DUO, a large-scale mixed-use development recently launched in Singapore; and Mahanakhon, soon to be Bangkok’s tallest skyscraper.

BORA HOTSPARESORT BY FRANCHI & DANNENBERG ARCHITECTURE

On May 1st 2013 an innovative hotel concept, the BORA HotSpaResort opens its doors to the public, a first class hotel located in an exclusive position on the west bank of lake Constance in Radolfzell.

The four star designer Hotel with 84 rooms and suites is the first of its kind in Germany conceived according to a holistic concept of a Hot Spa. In this wellness world guests experience warmth in all its facets. 

The future HotSpa arises from the already existing BORA sauna world with direct access to the lake and idyllic lawns for relaxation.

It is equipped with Finnish, Ground and Smoke saunas, plus a Kelo sauna. A Sanarium,  a steam bath and a unique Japanese Onsen bath, also the first of its kind in Germany, is the finishing touch to the Hot Spa. 

Natural and premium-quality materials such oak wood and linen were widely used in the modern architecture and elegant interior design of the BORA Hot Spa Resort. Unusual colour concepts play with contrasts of subtle and warmly radiating colours.

The hotel has, besides a restaurant, a fully glassed Sky Lounge which boasts a phenomenal 180° lake view.

In addition two seminar rooms and a working group room provide professional surroundings for meetings and trainings. 

The bora HotSpaResort is ideally located, lying on the west bank of Lake Constance in Radolfzell. The combination of an exclusive resort with a highly modern Hot Spa provides the hotel on one hand with the possibility of peace and quiet and a place to relax .

The Radolfzell and the lake Constance region offer many opportunities for organizing your free time. These range from simply switching off and relaxing to a multitude of places to see and things to do in the surrounding area.

Be it water sports like swimming, surfing, sailing or simply going for walks in the beautiful countryside, from bycycle tours around the lake to playing a round of golf, there is something for everyone.

Location: Radolfszell, Germany

Architects: Franchi & DannenbergArchitecture

Cooperation: Christina Biasi-von Berg, Biquadra/Meran

Project Team: Bruno Franchi, Michelangelo Pavia and Stefan Horn

Interior project: Biquadra/Meran

Year: 2013

Client: bora HotSpaResort

OMA AMONG THE WINNERS OF THE NEW MEDIA CAMPUS FOR AXEL SPRINGER

OMA has been announced as a finalist in the competition to design Axel Springer's new Media Campus in Berlin. 

Springer has launched a corporate move from "print" to "digital media" - in which our building will act both as a symbol and a tool; a palace to lure the elite of (Germany's) digital Bohemia to its compound in Berlin.

The genius of print is that it is a cheap, physical, hyper-accessible embodiment of a complex collective effort, for which so far the digital has been unable to find an equivalent. Architectural offices are similar to newspapers in that they produce complex assemblies and selections from radically different sources of information.

As architects, we have experienced the advantages: speed, precision, smoothness. But we have also suffered one crucial consequence: the relationship between the worker and his computer, which isolates him in a bubble of introverted performance, inaccessible to collective overview.

In the classical newsroom, dominated by smoking, typing journalists, each inhabitant was aware of the labour and progress of his colleagues and of the collective aim: a single issue, with the deadline as a simultaneous release. In the digital office, staring intently at a screen dampens all other forms of attention and therefore undermines the collective intelligence necessary for true innovation.

We therefore propose a building that lavishly broadcasts the work of individuals for shared analysis. The new office block is injected with a central atrium that opens up to the existing Springer buildings - a new center of the Springer campus.

The essence of our proposal is a series of terraced floors that together form a digital valley. Each floor contains a covered part as a traditional work environment, which is then uncovered on the terraces. Halfway through the building, the valley is mirrored to generate a three dimensional canopy.

The public can experience the building on three levels - ground floor lobby, meeting bridge, and roof-top bar. The meeting bridge is a viewing platform from which the visitors can witness the daily functioning of the company and how it evolves.

The common space formed by the interconnected terraces offers an alternative to the formal office space in the solid part of the building, allowing for an unprecedented expansion of the vocabulary of workspaces: a building that can absorb all the question marks of the digital future.