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Architects: Sehw Architektur
- Area: 29826 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Philipp Obkircher
Text description provided by the architects. The building providing modern working environments is the first component of the emerging innovation park in Augsburg, a place bringing together the worlds of work and research. Consequently, its concept is aimed at start-ups and companies from the research and tech sectors. In addition to the open-plan workspace design, catering, and local shops on the ground floor, a shared conference centre on the rooftop, a day-care centre, and many digital smart features ensure that the building offers everything its users need.
The building’s unique characteristic stems from its holistic approach to innovation. This approach achieves a synthesis of a vigorous form that conveys the user dynamics to the outside world, a high level of sustainability through a socio-cultural mix of uses and the building’s LEED Platinum certification along with a high feel-good factor of the working environments with varying characteristics, a tenant app providing access to all of the building’s smart features, and an air concept that has an invigorating effect thanks to subtle scenting, while at the same time filtering germs and viruses and therefore promoting the health of the employees.
Work is versatile, requires variable framework conditions, does not only take place at a desk, and may also be fun! A variety of uses come together in the building, forming a unit or rather a vibrant coexistence. Anything goes: units can be rented from the smallest of spaces, but can also be combined horizontally or vertically to create areas of up to 3,000 m2. There is maximum flexibility within each unit: the space is free of load-bearing transverse walls, and ancillary rooms are positioned at the staircases. Possible layouts range from individual offices to combi-offices with a central zone, to open-plan offices or state-of-the-art office landscapes with very different working atmospheres.
The design as a reinforced concrete skeleton structure with a support grid and solid staircase and ancillary room cores as bracing is economical and allows for the greatest possible flexibility and long-term changeability regarding use. Interior walls were built in lightweight construction or installed by the tenants themselves. Surface materials were chosen so that they radiate value and create an appealing ambiance, but are also durable and low-maintenance. Sustainable materials were used to minimise the CO2 footprint and the embodied energy balance.
The concept is rounded off by rainwater harvesting and the implementation of an innovative solar power storage concept using photovoltaics on the rooftop. Solid parapets are hidden behind the striking horizontal sun protection slats, which reduce the glass proportion of the façade to achieve a better insulation value and earn credits towards the certification of the building. Building services are responsible for a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is why the planned building is being designed as a nearly-zero carbon concept. LEED Platinum certification sets a high standard.
