Trumpf Laser Factory

Jürgen Adam, Katharina Hausmann, Frank Jüttner

Description

In Ditzingen near Stuttgart a new commercial complex including production and administration premises has been built for Trumpf engineering works. To the east, the site borders on the Trumpf headquarters buildings, to the west on agricultural land and to the north on a motorway. The layout comprises laser production halls, depots, offices, an entrance lobby and an exhibition level. A tunnel forming a prolongation of the access of the existing factory connects to the circulation spine of the new production plants.

The first phase (1998) comprises two large production halls as well as office and administration buildings. In the second phase another plant for systems technology was built as an addition to the complex in 2000. The two production halls in the north mainly serve for the assembly of components; the southern plant is a logistics center.

The production halls are arranged along the new axis and parallel to their context. The scheme grows into the characteristic topography and existing agricultural parcels, which offer a flexible patchwork of territory to be used for the architectural concept. This finally manifests itself in the roof landscape of the plants: the linear roof structure folds and weaves creating inverted pitched surfaces and lozenge-shaped openings lighting the spaces below. Thus, the roof becomes a fifth façade, which is stitched into the general natural fabric.

The plants are laid out on a structural grid consisting of in-situ concrete frames and columns. The steel girders of the roof are clad with a standing seam aluminum skin. Interior finishes include exposed concrete, steel and aluminum; for the façades zinc and concrete were chosen. While the service ducts in the first phase were exposed below the roof structure, in the second phase they were installed as four underground ducts. Consequently, machines can be flexibly shifted along these ducts and the roof remains free of mechanical services.