A new “heart” is reviving the existing factory site and ensuring a transparent flow of information.
CLIENT
Viega Supply Chain GmbH & Co. KG
COMPLETION
2009
SIZE
11.000 sqm GFA
PHOTOCREDITS
Christa Lachenmaier
The company Viega which is now in the fourth generation of family management, manufactures products for installation technology and has grown steadily over the last decades. At the registered office in Attendorn, this growth had over the years led to a head office that was forming its annual rings in the form of offices, research and production surrounding the factory building as its nucleus, and which had to be extended and in the process comprehensively restructured - as requirements are constantly shifting. Production was moved outside the town. This gave rise to the opportunity to lend the factory site a structural centre and an architectural identity. The new company headquarters building realised by ASTOC invigorates the existing building complex as its “head and backbone”.
With its numerous connections to the differing heights of the existing buildings, the new building acts as a hinge. It networks the existing buildings both spatially and functionally. Besides a communicative and flexible office structure for 350 employees, the building also saw the creation of event and training rooms as well as a staff restaurant and a new management board area. The centrepiece of the new building, a glass-roofed atrium with a curved, free-standing steel spiral staircase, offers numerous visual connections and acts as a key location for the internal flow of development and communication. The office corridors lead from the new building to the existing areas in gentle curves. The facility to implement the building and extend it gradually was crucial in the planning. The staircase cores are arranged in such a way that further office wings can be easily added in successive construction phases.
