adidas goes one step further in its alliance with contemporary good taste, executing a unique office building where you won’t mind going to work every day.
adidas has found the key to the concept of the office building of the future. And he has done it through a system that many use only for public administrations and that in architecture has turned out to be a differential fact: the contest of ideas. These contests should be the usual trend for big brands, since they allow the introduction of new and surprising designs, as well as having a more direct impact on society. Without a doubt, if we can enjoy this construction today it is thanks to the brand, but also to the social advancement that ideas contests allow.
The amazing adidas office building
In 2014, the most popular sports company in the world, with the permission of Nike, and in whose logo we recently invited you to live, awarded the construction of the administrative headquarters on its adidas World of Sports campus, in Herzogenaurach, Germany, to the study of architecture Behnisch Architekten.
The building provides about 52,000 square meters of built area for offices, but also adds a new construction milestone for the country, and magnificent spaces for the 2,000 people who will use it daily.
The Adidas building looks like it’s floating
The building, which will be the new main entrance to the sports complex, has a shape that indirectly links it to a stadium. However, unlike this one, it does not settle on the ground, but rises, distancing itself several meters from it, forming an idyllic image of what it must be like to float while you work.
To further highlight this weightlessness, the German landscape architecture studio Lola Landscape included an artificial lake next to the building, a huge reservoir that refreshes the outside environment, and allows a glimpse of the construction and its symmetry.
A totally sporty exterior and interior design
The building is accessed by a yellow path, reaching the ground floor, which is located below the atrium, saving a natural slope. From the huge, exceptionally open lobby, users are directed through a tunnel similar to that of athletes who go to the stadium to the main atrium, a space that allows the celebration of events, and that ends in an outdoor terrace with views to campus. From the building you can also access the sports facilities, located just behind. A space configuration that makes office workers feel like athletes, at least in part.
You can go up to the upper floors of the building with the elevators that are in the central atrium, and by the generous metal staircase that connects the floors. This atrium serves as the heart of the complex, connecting the three floors of offices in an open way, and inviting users and employees to see each other easily, to reinforce social work ties and ensure that a sporadic meeting can bear fruit anywhere of the property. It is precisely for this that the location of the «formal» meeting areas in central and easily distinguishable areas helps.
Six patios that distribute light throughout the building
The building has six openings in the form of patios, with two different dimensions, according to the need for air and light that the rooms require. The perimeter work areas of the construction, and all the interiors, benefit from these natural conditions, generating spaces with very varied configurations, where almost any office can be implemented.
Of course, the new offices and work areas cannot be exempt from large open spaces, decorated in bright colors and equipped with technological tools with which to perform an optimal job. We saw this recently in another spectacular office building.
The building takes advantage of the sunlight thanks to the photovoltaic panels and the facade
As a self-respecting avant-garde construction, its design includes measures for self-sufficiency and energy control. Photovoltaic panels supply part of the energy required by its facilities, and the rhythmic façade is an example of the building’s innovation. This system has been developed thanks to a custom fixed sun protection system. It has an intelligent design with which, depending on the position of the sun, it allows its maximum use without generating extra costs, that is, without having to use the air conditioning excessively. The facades are our best allies if we know how to execute them in such a way that the excess or the lack of heat only affects us in its positive part.
If we think the rhythmic pattern of the facade is great, made up of opaque and perforated aluminum sheets that are placed in front of the exterior glass enclosure. We think that the use of different colors per floor and use of rooms is idyllic. We sympathize with the extensive use of recycled materials, such as the containers that have been introduced into the building as communication rooms. Or even if it seems appropriate not to place a false ceiling, taking advantage of the collaborative sheet metal slab on its lower part as a termination, leaving the facilities visible… We will surrender to what follows. Sure.
A complex construction that makes history
In order to make the building block «levitate», a system of 67 inclined steel supports was executed, arranged irregularly on the ground. The construction process was equally exquisite, since it consisted of executing the steel structure of the upper floors of the building on the ground, and then lifting it to its final position. In other words, 12,000 tons were lifted in a rectangle measuring 140 by 120 meters. A feat worth seeing on video and, surely, a highlight in the lives of the people who lived the construction.
Accompanying the developer, adidas, and the architects Behnisch Architekten, the engineering company that made this small miracle possible stands in a relevant place: Züblin Ground Engineering. This is followed by the company that made the ground floor curtain wall: Schuco, and who installed the elevators: Atlas Schindler. Also added to this list are Gerflor and Kahrs flooring suppliers, Warema blinds and, among many others, the company in charge of exterior aluminum: Gutmann.
Anyway, if something is clear to me, it is that the workers in these offices will not be there for the work of teleworking. Can you imagine a better place to go to work with a smile from ear to ear? I do not.