The task was an expansion of office space for the window manufacturer IFN / Internorm and to improve the complex of the old buildings. With the idea of a new connecting building, we wanted to calm the appearance of the different building types having been developed over the last decades. Therefore we created a new space with a shifting roof, to connect the existing 4-story building with the 3-story building, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s. The new space shifts horizontal after the second floor. The whole headquarter with its old and new part gets coated with the same facade material, to create a unit.
IFN / Internorm sets new standards in ecological viewpoints. We created a low-energy-standard in the existing buildings and a plus energy standard in the new central building. Internorm internal technologies like highly heat insulation window systems with triple heat absorbing glass, SOLAR+ cover and integrated I-tec ventilations with heat exchanging device, as well as glass panels and sliding doors in XL-dimensions were used. Also sun blinds with daylight steering mechanism and energy efficient aluminium facades are part of the new concept.
The new building with its 4 storeys implies 2000m² new space.
A multifunctional entrance area and a new cafeteria with terrace are situated on the new ground floor. In the first floor the meeting area with 9 meeting rooms in different sizes and possible combinations is placed. The second and third floor contain working spaces.
We created light flooded open structures with a pleasurable atmosphere to offer the working people room for development and form a place where different interactive working methods are welcome. A Modern office design with flexible working places is realized with its “come together areas” in combination with the conference area and should support creative processes in the company and animate to think flexible and in a different and new kind of way. The intermediate zones of the working spaces contain a kitchen, bar and lounge area to support conversation interexchange. Internal walls with magnetic surfaces offer a place for notes, internal presentations and can be used as flip charts or pin boards.
The entrance area in its generosity and with the light and open structure is characteristically for the architectural concept of the building. The wall on the opposite of the entrance is covered with luminous textile panels which show different films and generate different light atmospheres. They also have an acoustic effect, which was very important. So a unique, atmospheric entrance area with surprising effects arises to everybody who enters the new office building of IFN/ Internorm.
The two existing building components will now as the second step be thermally renovated to reach a passive house standard. Besides window changes and modernization of the cladding, the new interior concept analog the new building as open work space will be transacted.
Our architecture should find a balance between stimulation and reservation. Our architectural language is reserved in design, not to produce a stimulus satiation, so that communication and exchange of ideas with Internorm and IFN topics can fill the room. A new office as a solid for new visions and following development of innovative products of the IFN / Internorm group.