How do a cutting-edge digital communications venue and a historic farm work together? Remarkably well, as it turns out. Take zgoll's new headquarters in Korschenbroich: a 19th-century farmstead transformed by Cologne-based architects JSWD into a space that honors its heritage while embracing the company's forward-thinking vision.

The design transforms the farmstead into an identity-building destination where exhibition and training spaces flow seamlessly with employee offices and production areas. Since the complex lacked protected status, the architects replaced two smaller structures with new ones, preserving the original barn and its slightly recessed stable building. Two two-storey buildings, their pitched roofs echoing the traditional gabled forms, extend the courtyard on three sides. The material language speaks to the farm's heritage: the regional brick facades were carefully restored, roofs re-covered in dark standing-seam metal, and strategic enlargement of windows and doors creates intuitive wayfinding and connection throughout the space.

The new structures wear a skin of horizontally scaled, flat-format clinker that channels the texture of traditional barn cladding. The unified clay tile palette across both facades and roofs renders the buildings as compelling sculptural forms, giving the entire complex a refined contemporary character rooted firmly in local tradition.

The restored barn now serves as a showcase for conference technology, inviting visitors to experience firsthand how integrated design transforms collaboration. Technology, furnishings, and space work in concert—adapting to user needs and demonstrating the company's motto of "inspired collaboration" in action. The boundary between employee workspace and client showroom dissolves naturally; zgoll doesn't just preach human-centered design, it lives it daily.

www.jswd-architekten.de
www.zgoll.eu

Photography Credits:

Oliver Blobel
www.oliver-blobel.de

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 02|20)