Description

Located southeast of the centre of Tübingen in the town’s French Quarter, the new building is a perfect cube – 22 × 22 × 22 m of offices for the energy provider Südwestdeutsche Stromhandels GmbH. The cube shape is a direct response to the simple square shapes of the existing neighbouring buildings from the 1980s that belong to the utility company. The new structure mediates between the existing office buildings and between the industrial facilities located on the site, such as heat storage towers, pipelines and gas tanks. At the same time, the brick facade of the extension building clearly stands out from the existing building with its light-coloured surface and large, regularly placed openings. The articulation of the facade lends it a playful character and the shifting angles and textures create different shades of colour. A distinctive element of the building is also the unusual textile solar shades which are integrated flush into the reveal of the windows on the outside and colour-coordinated with the façade.

Alongside the new building, Steimle Architekten also converted the customer centre, a slender connecting building that links the existing building to the ground floor of the new building.

A key advantage of the cubic shape of the extension is its compactness and the simplicity of the floor plans. All the upper floors are divided identically: a stair and elevator core, then sanitary facilities and a kitchenette, with seating for coffee breaks and informal meetings, and finally the offices arranged around the core so that the workplaces have optimal natural illumination.

Additional artificial lighting is provided only by individual floor lamps. Since the building has no back or front, every workplace has the same basic conditions. Despite the identical floor plans on all floors, partitions can be placed to achieve a high degree of flexibility in the design of the workplaces. The top five floors accommodate all variations of office types, from individual offices to open-plan offices with ten workplaces together. Where several people share an office, the workstations can be divided by mobile acoustic partitions attached to the tables. These were specially designed by the architects, as were the wall cabinets. Perhaps the most privileged workplaces are on the northeast corner on the upper floors: with their panoramic views, they provide a view across to Tübingen Castle, the Collegiate Church and the University Hospital.

Originally published in Bauwelt 21.2018, pp. 54-59, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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