The
communication agency LOOK UP in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, desired a building with
a high recognition value, a building with a self-confident and progressive
expression symbolizing through its purity the working methods of the agency.
The building site is situated on a revitalized former colliery field. The
building is three-story high without basement and houses two separate areas.
"Production" is on
ground floor - here, finishing of LOOK UP products takes place. The
"creative zones" as well as conference rooms and management are
located on both upper floors.
Those floors are realized as open, transparent work area. Frameless glass
partitions are used to separate the zones. Only sanitary installations and the
tearoom
form an independent block. Stepping out is possible on each floor: balconies
are arranged along the large concrete slab.
The construction
selected for the external concrete walls was realized in Germany for the first
time. The walls have been designed as double wall with internal bearing
layer made of 17 cm
reinforced concrete. Concreting of the outside wall of 10 cm in width was
carried out on site. Only the concrete lamellas on the south of the building
are made of
prefabricated concrete elements. The airiness of the glass façades stands out
against the heavy concrete walls. The glass fields are about 3.40 m x 3.00 m
in dimension
integrated into a post-and-beam construction from larch without visible
fasteners. This type of façade design was planned and realized for the first
time,
as well.
All walls, ceilings,
as well as the circulation stairs inside of the building were also realized on
site in fair-faced concrete quality. Primarily larch and steel
combined with concrete
have been used for further completion of the interior. Flooring in the
production area on ground floor is a white epoxy resin. On the office
floors, we laid a
light, sandblasted Jurassic marble bordered near the façade by a
circumferential concrete band of 10 cm in width.