The owner-managed media agency Crossmedia has not only recently changed its name, but also its location: since February of this year, the company has been operating under the name Unbound Media and has moved into its new headquarters in Hugo-Viehoff-Straße in the north of Düsseldorf. "Hugo" is the name of the striking, completely renovated existing property built in 1909, which was extended by several new buildings as part of the construction work. The refurbishment and extension have become part of the company's built philosophy, as the building combines old foundations and new elements to creatively create future-proof structures. The project, which offers 2,556 m² of office space for 160 employees, was designed and implemented over six years by the Bochum-based firm Beilmann Architekten. The design of the diverse and flexible New Work areas was in the hands of DSK Innenarchitektur from Düsseldorf.

The four-storey building of the century with the striking tower corner was built in 1909 as a production site based on designs by Düsseldorf architects Richard Krekel and Heinrich Storck. Heavily damaged by air raids during the Second World War, the building underwent many alterations in the post-war period. The building served as an assembly hall for a long time before it was finally used as a shelter for the homeless. The aim of the construction work was to restore the original workshop character of the existing building. By exposing the brick façade, it was possible to give the building its former, robust industrial look. As the existing ceilings no longer met the structural requirements, new concrete ceilings were installed on all four floors, which were also left raw and unclad in order to achieve the highest possible rooms with a ceiling height of 4.5 meters. In order to reveal the different historical layers of the building, the rooms in the upper third are unplastered. To match this, antique wooden floorboards were laid, which were sourced from recycled wood from old farmhouses to conserve resources. All of the window openings that were reduced in size in the post-war period were restored to their original size or enlarged: the newly installed, fully transparent dormers or the six-metre-wide panoramic window on the second floor allow plenty of daylight to enter the four floors - optimized in terms of energy efficiency thanks to newly installed aluminium frame windows.

With its triad of ice storage heating and geothermal energy for heating and cooling as well as photovoltaics for internal power generation, the building - including all new parts of the building - requires only a third of the energy previously required. While the floor plan of the existing building was largely retained, two additional workshop buildings and a transparent connecting block were added around the central, green inner courtyard. All rooms, zones and areas were completely redefined in order to offer a perfect working environment with a high level of identification: On each floor, the open space areas, in which there are primarily flexible working options, are designed very differently. In addition to "workshops" and "workshop areas" - as the local conference rooms are called - there are several multifunctional retreat and digital meeting rooms as well as various lounge corners spread across the entire building ensemble. In addition, the actual heart of the agency is located on the second floor of the existing building: a spacious dining room with a bar and kitchen invites staff and guests to meet and eat together - with an impressive panoramic view of the inner courtyard.

www.dsk-innenarchitektur.de
www.beilmannarchitekten.de
www.unbound-media.de

Photos:
Jan Ladwig
www.janlawig.com

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 02|25)