IVB headquarters | LORENZ ATELIERS

The first prize of the invited competition is won by LORENZATELIERS design, which does not follow the tender: demolition and new building instead of restoration.

The starting point for the architectural concept of the IVB headquarters were the requirements and needs of the drivers, mechanics and technicians who need an office building with the robustness of a workshop. The result is a simple, clear-cut steel structure with a suspended robed façade - a subversive reference to the tram tracks. A building that creates identity, plays with its function, its essence. The irregularly perforated plates can partly be folded manually outwards - as sun protection, which at the same time animates the façade.

The IVB headquarters is not a solitaire: it rather takes self-confidence in the dialogue with its prominent and historical surroundings: the Late Baroque basilica, the late-Gothic convent, the baroque Premonstratensian monastery and the monastery cemetery. The building has a Z profile. At the east side it protrudes far, seems to float above the V-shaped prop and thus stages the entrance area. In the free space under the cantilever, the tram turns on its way into the train almost through the house - a symbol of the function and identity of the building.

In the interior, wherever possible, cladding of the original materials is avoided. The floor is laid in screed, the ceilings and walls in exposed concrete. Partitions between offices and corridors are made of profiled glass, additional partitions made of cement-bonded chipboard. The sliding doors and clad surfaces are covered with black metal. The room height of 3.20 meters and the wide corridors create a generous atmosphere - despite the small, functional office space.