Adapted to the dynamics of the company over many years, the 1980s building has undergone numerous additions and extensions to become a large-scale industrial cluster with storage areas, logistics areas and multi-storey administrative areas. Like a castle, the building complex stands in an industrial area on the outskirts of Tübingen, which has developed into an urban structure over time. After the resources of the medical technology company opposite had been exhausted on its own property, it acquired the heterogeneous building complex. According to the plans of the architects + partners Dannien Roller, this was now to be both converted and comprehensively renovated in terms of energy efficiency and fire protection. Due to the poor condition of the building, a comprehensive technical inventory was necessary. The more detailed the inventory became, the clearer it was that the building had to be accepted and promoted within its individual framework. The process was characterised by curiosity – and a willingness to develop the property on the outskirts in such a way that it could take its own place.

The redesign of the original fire protection concept has enabled the creation of spacious units on each floor. Partition walls and corridors have been removed, creating a contemporary working environment with open-plan workspaces, private offices, meeting islands and team areas with an ideas arena. The brooch-like conservatory entrance structure was replaced by a new entrance area adapted to the cubature. Designed as a light, open, two-storey foyer, it is used as a waiting area and team zone. The façade of the castle-like and cumbersome cubature was given a new structure: it consists of a linearly structured two-storey base and a structurally superimposed vertically structured "crown". The façade, with its composite thermal insulation system modulation, structures the base as a flat fan-shaped structure and gives the crown of the building a sawtooth surface. Following the renovation, which was carried out while the building remained in use, the former "problem child" has not only become an independent, high-quality building, but also a counterpart to the company's own building complex.

www.dannien-roller-architekten-partner.de

(Featured in CUBE Stuttgart 01|20)