The new Hilden Technology Campus for the air conditioning and refrigeration company Soeffing, which can look back on over 100 years of tradition in the region, is conveniently located near the Hilden interchange. Kresings from Düsseldorf designed a four-storey, barrier-free office building and an adjacent warehouse, which are characterised by particularly high sustainability and energy efficiency standards. The completed office building meets both the demanding requirements of the DGNB Gold building certificate and the Quality Seal for Sustainable Buildings (QNG) of the Federal Ministry of Building, Housing and Urban Development.

The guiding principle behind the design of the almost square office building is a sustainable concept that promotes a contemporary, agile working environment thanks to a flexible floor plan structure. The building offers the option of flexible room design on all four floors: open-plan workspaces, team zones, and classic single and double offices are available. In addition, there are communication areas that encourage interaction between employees, some of which can be separated by textile curtains. The heart of the building is the central foyer on the ground floor: the transparent main entrance leads to a practical forecourt, which is directly connected to the offices of the client and main user. A wide wooden staircase, which offers sufficient space for seating steps for informal break-time conversations, connects to the first floor, which is also available to the company as an office floor. The two upper floors above are let separately. From the outset, an expert office for sustainable construction accompanied the project, so that demolition- and recycling-friendly building materials were given priority: for example, the concrete structure of the building, which is reduced to a few supports, is clad with prefabricated elements in timber panel construction. The rear-ventilated façade is made of vertical wooden slats in the enclosed areas, while fibre cement panels accentuate the floor structure at the floor bands. Wooden building materials are also used inside, for wall and ceiling cladding as well as for acoustic panels made of wood fibre boards. It goes without saying that, for a climate control company, the entire heating and ventilation technology also follows a consistently sustainable concept: an air/water heat pump is used for heat generation, which is fed by a PV system on the green roof of the warehouse. To promote sustainable mobility, bicycle parking spaces and bicycle changing rooms with showers are available.

www.kresings.com

Photography:
Nils Koenning
www.nilskoenning.com

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 04|25)