The master plan for the company premises and branch office demonstrates how corporate culture can be translated into architecture, while at the same time allowing for alternative future uses. The project comprised studies for different footprint options, structural expansions and varieties of use as well as feasibility studies for potential interventions.
The Künzelsau premises of Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG offer a structure that reflects the company’s microcosm and plays an identity-shaping role for staff, customers and visitors. The architecture does not specify the structure’s specific purpose, but rather offers a building that reveals its interior through the exterior: the transparent polycarbonate sheath allows the substructure, bolts and structural elements to show through. The function of screws and bolts is easy to understand; the structural hardware is exposed throughout the complex. As a result, the design valorizes these elements and makes reference to Würth’s position as a global market leader in the sale of assembly and fastening materials. Spaces were created to facilitate communicative and social interaction as well as adaptation for specific uses.
By abstracting its interior volume as much as possible and simplifying the design, the company premises achieve autonomy. The overhanging canopy roof presents the space below as a cutout of the cubic structure.
Realization:
Specialist planners:
IB Wieland & Meißner GmbH, Oehringen (Structural design)
Realgrün, Munich (Landscape design)
Sachverständigengesellschaft Dr. Porz mbH, Fellbach (Fire proofing)
IBB Burrer & Deuring Ingenieurbüro GmbH, Ludwigsburg (Electric planning)
AIT-Award 2018, Special mention
Hugo Häring Award 2017