Description
The design concept for the new laboratory building – an extension of the ”Werk 005” research and development centre of Beiersdorf AG in the central Hamburg district of Eimsbüttel – takes up the theme of the building skin as a metaphor of one of the company’s main product lines: cosmetics and skin care. The rounded corners of the building, a blob-shaped lecture hall, and plant rooms with curved roofs encourage onlookers to attribute elastic qualities to the building envelope.
Two six-storey volumes are linked by access and communication areas on each level to form an L-shaped building. On the fourth and fifth floor, a 70 m long glass tube suspended from steel trusses connects the respective access areas with existing buildings. The lecture hall seating 500 is covered by a shell structure clad with stainless steel. Adjacent to the lecture hall, the main entrance from the north leads into a two-storey public entrance hall. The lecture hall is situated in the centre of a large water basin while penetrating the main building. A suspenseful contrast is established between organic and geometrical, engineered and free building forms.
From the second to fifth floor, the main building is arranged along two interior corridors per floor. The external zones contain open plan laboratories with writing desks positioned next to the façades. Individual office and meeting rooms have been allocated to these laboratories. The central dark zone houses special equipment laboratories and service zones. Technical services run in decentralised individual shafts feeding exposed horizontal service ducts. Therefore, no suspended ceilings were required and relatively low ceiling heights could be achieved. The resulting total building height is below the high-rise limit, making planning requirements in terms of fire protection and escape routes easier to fulfil.
The long southern wing accommodates large laboratory areas. Little office units are located behind the fully glazed north façade. The units’ interior partitions, which face the central laboratory and meeting area, are also glazed. Open plan work desks for scientific analysis are allocated near the south façade. Single wet chemical laboratories supplement the general open plan arrangement. The building structure with large ceiling spans, single service shafts, and low ceiling heights provides maximum flexibility as it allows the refurbishment of lab floors into office floors.
Drawings
Site plan
Schematic sketch of building
Ground floor
Third floor
Cross sections
Originally published in: Hardo Braun, Dieter Grömling, Research and Technology Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2005.