The new building of the German company
ARCA-Regler GmbH is situated along a former railway line amidst a residential
topology, which bears the stamp of villages. It combines a production area of
about 1600 sqm and an office area of about 500 sqm. The objective was to create
a building - other than the usual industrial buildings with a mostly low-priced
warehouse made of gas concrete - that is accepted in the (residential)
neighborhood and at the same time emphasizes the company's identity through its
formal language and ecological pretensions.The required building floor of about 2100 sqm has
been developed as two-story-high long building being molded out of the grassed
area surrounding it. Like a wide belt the façade winds its way into the
terrain. The front glass building houses the office premises whereas the
metallic building behind accommodates the development and production rooms. A
zone for staircase and sanitary facilities separates both building parts. The façade of the management area is a double-skin
where the outside glass skin with a printing degree of 55 % is designed to keep
out solar radiation to a large extent. Since printing intensity varies and is
the less at eye level, the office premises look extremely transparent and allow
a good view outward. The zone behind the second glass skin is accessible and
offers the employees all the year round a weatherproof zone for taking their
breaks.The demand of the building owner to use
resource-saving energy sources for an industrial building is not self-evident
at all. However, this new building is operated with regenerative energies,
only. The entire cooling capacity and the largest fraction of heating capacity
for the new building is supplied by a field of geothermal probes without the
need of further energy expenses.
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