Description

In many respects, the Götz company set new standards with the erection of its new headquarters in Würzburg’s industrial district. The office building presents itself as a minimalist, two-storey glass cube with four almost identical sides. Imposing steps lead up to the glass sliding doors opening onto the reception area, where the eye can take in the entire ground floor. In the clear, quadratic ground plan, which is repeated in the slabs of the grey granite floor and in the suspended coffered ceiling of metal, a transparent and open office landscape develops. Separated from each other by hip-high cabinets, the engineers of the metalworking enterprise develop sophisticated façade systems. Communication and interaction, the essential prerequisites for teamwork, are fostered by the open-plan layout. At the same time, the open-plan office enables the desks to be easily rearranged to correspond to changes in the constitution of the teams. An atrium lighted from above forms the focal point of the building and a spatial link between the two floors. Luxuriant plant growth and a pool of water create a comfortable microclimate in the atrium. The staff go to the cafeteria or the comfortable seating areas grouped around the indoor garden for their breaks or for short meetings. Entirely glazed structures acoustically separate meeting rooms and a few private workplaces from the rest of the office, but they are hardly apparent to the eye.

The energy management system, which ensures that the building is largely autonomous as far as energy is concerned is equally unobtrusive and can be operated emission-free. A large number of sensors register the environment outdoors and indoors and regulate the climate and façade technology accordingly. The building is naturally ventilated by means of ventilation flaps in the outer skin of the double-skin façade and via the atrium roof. In winter solar energy, supported by the solar protection louvres painted black on one side, warms the air in the space between the two skins of the façade. The temperature differences between north and south are evened out by means of blowers, which assure horizontal air circulation in the space between the façade skins. The inner façade can be opened, individually or extensively, by sliding doors. While the façade uses the solar energy passively, solar collectors transform it into the necessary cooling and heating energy. The under-floor heating, regulable by area, is used for cooling on extremely hot days, supplemented by cooling elements in the suspended ceiling. Fossil fuels are only used to cover peak demand. Through the logical linking of the high performance capabilities of the façade with the solar energy concept, the company headquarters building becomes its own best advertisement.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.