Wrapping the project’s perimeter is a silkscreen fritted glass fence varying in height from 1-4.5 meters. This semi-transparent membrane provides additional security and features an oversized centrally located entrance in the form of an 8-meter wide gate, opening during the day and closing at night.
Lending a singular identity to the clustered volumes, this fence also allows the six individual working areas to be individually distinguished. Therefore, this new office can be perceived as both several individual buildings, sharing a common enclosing skin, and one continuous urban intervention that fluidly interweaves interior and exterior.
The working areas vary in floor height, and are connected by a series of outdoor terraces, which serve as external shortcuts, but also as communication and resting areas, between the many media departments. These exterior terraces activate the building, encouraging informal communication among the building’s employees, balancing with the generously open interior office spaces.
The hybrid nature of the office’s column free interior spaces, and the raised floors throughout for IT and data cables, allows the building to remain flexible and adaptable to future uses. The building’s five staircases, parking garage, and most ceilings have been created using exposed concrete, supplemented with additional aluminum acoustic panels.
Schwäbisch Media
Ravensburg, Germany
Architects: Wiel Arets Architects
Project Team: Wiel Arets, Bettina Kraus, Carsten Hilgendorf, Uta Böcker, Tobias Gehrke, Ramón Alvarez-Roa, Ole Hallier, Sjoerd Wilbers
Collaborators: Janosch Welzien, Jasper Stevens, Martin Tessarz, Tobias Bam- berg, Steffen Winkler, Carlatta Giacomin
Consultants: ABT, Eicher + Pauli, Winter·lngenieure
Client Schwäbischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
Type: Office
Total Area: 13.800 sqm
Date of Design Competition 1st Prize: 2008 - 2009
Completion: June 2013