Funder Werk 3

The task was to transform a strictly functional building (a factory for plastic impregnated decorative paper) into strong, assertive architecture. Industrial culture can only come into being when one can successively transform economic and functional constraints into a multi-dimensional design. The concept was therefore based on the notion of dismantling the production hall - the productive object - into sculptural elements. During the design process the components like the energy center, the media bridge, the flying roof, the office and laboratory tract and the entrances were differentiated into architectural elements which, when combined, would endow the total complex with a recognizable “head and body”. The playful, sculptural design of the various elements differentiates them from the deliberately white, sparse hall: the roofs protecting and marking the entries, and the disintegrated glass corner facing south. The energy center has chimneys that are almost dancing, the media bridge is acting as a link between power and production, the roof has a free-form wing shape looking capable of flying. Designed as a fifth façade visible from the slightly main road on higher ground, the roof with its red “comb” serves to highlight the dynamics of the production process. In order to create recognizability and identity, traditional viewing habits are called into question by the act of twisting and tilting individual architectural elements.