adidas LACES, Herzogenaurach Building, German Project Design, Property Images

adidas LACES Germany : Herzogenaurach Building

Herzogenaurach Development design by kadawittfeldarchitektur in Germany

post updated with larger photos 20 Apr 2018 ; 23 Sep 2011

adidas LACES Herzogenaurach

Location: Herzogenaurach, Germany

Design: kadawittfeldarchitektur

The latest project of kadawittfeldarchitektur: adidas Laces.

The Research and development building offers a new working environment at the corporation’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach to round about 1,700 adidas designers, developers, scientists and marketing strategists. The new ‘Laces’ as its largest building completes the current masterplan of the adidas-campus ‘World of Sports’.

Photos : Werner Huthmacher

‘Laces’ – a communicative architectural theme In contrast to conventional office typologies, the ring structure developed by kadawittfeldarchitektur lends to the building a double relationship to the landscape – both to the outer surroundings and to the communicative landscape of the atrium. The connecting walkways, “Laces”, efficiently open up access to all office areas without the need to cross through other departments. At the same time they transform the atrium into a creative center of the building that provides an identity.

adidas Laces, Herzogenaurach, Germany

The new Laces blends into the existing World of Sports ensemble as a floating counterpart to the black, recumbent mass of the adidas Brand Center. Its clearly contoured volume positively invites the surrounding campus to find a continuation within its interior, an atrium with a controlled climate. Lined up in a circular arrangement, the office areas with their large glazed surfaces open onto the atmospheric inner space and the remarkable landscaped space.

The connecting walkways that cross the atrium, the Laces, “tie” the built volume together, as it were, to form a many-layered office building that is rich in relationships. They enable a maximum of interaction and allow open areas of communication to emerge. As delicate connecting bridges, they weave a poetic spatial structure into the interior and thus make the special creative atmosphere of the building legible. The result is an inspiring place for research and product development.

The holistic approach and the early joint cooperation of the diverse design disciplines prove another remarkable quality of the project: The architecture (kadawittfeldarchitektur), the signage system (Büro uebele) and the Interior design (KINZO) don’t appear as an additive ensemble but merge to an undivisible whole.

Sneaker-Proof Environment

BRIEF

Research and development building with 1700 working places at the adidas World of Sports campus in Herzogenaurach.

Added Value

In contrast to conventional office typologies, the ring structure developed by kadawittfeldarchitektur lends to the building a double relationship to the landscape – both to the outer surroundings and to the communicative landscape of the atrium. The connecting walkways, “Laces”, efficiently open up access to all office areas without the need to cross through other departments. At the same time they transform the atrium into a creative center of the building that provides an identity.

adidas laces, Herzogenaurach, Germany

The adidas brand is characterised by permanent development, as it was in the days of the company founder Adi Dassler. Innovations don’t happen by chance, however, and they happen not only in the development department but every day, when employees apply their minds, are committed and collaborate with passion on the creation of new products.

The further extension of the “World of Sports” by means of the sustainable office building called Laces makes a significant contribution by providing employees not only with functional and optimised working conditions but also with inspiring surroundings that encourage creativity. In the competition that was held in 2006, the challenge was to match the high functional and architectural standards of the buildings previously constructed here, and at the same time to represent the individual character of the adidas brand. Adi Dassler’s endeavour to make the perfect product can be transferred to architecture in many ways.

The aim of the proposal was to create a building that fitted the adidas brand. This applied to the design of the building, on the one hand, but above all to the atmosphere and everyday creative work. A building in which employees work with both success and enjoyment, and one that makes it possible to experience every day what it is that makes the location in Herzogenaurach so special. It was not to be a typical office building with zones separated according to department, but an unmistakable place for the mainly young employees from all over the world to identify with the company.

Starting from countless different approaches, what finally emerged was the idea of a ring-shaped building with a spacious atrium and connecting walkways, the “laces” (like the laces of a shoe), which give the structure its name on account of their particular geometry: crossing the airspace of the atrium, they connect office areas lying opposite each other on each level and thus “tie” the volume together to form an office building that is rich in multi-faceted relationships. The themes of movement and dynamism are ever-present in this way and convey to the employees the feeling of being part of the creative work process.

adidas LACES Herzogenaurach – Building Information

typology: office building
construction volume: gfa 62.000m² cubature 356.000m³
realization: 2008-11
client: adidas AG World of Sports
competition: 1st Prize 2007
architect: kadawittfeldarchitektur
project partner: Dirk Zweering
awards: Office Application Award 2009: Best Innovative Concept

ADIDAS LACES Herzogenaurauch images / information from kadawittfeldarchitektur

adidas LACES

Location: Herzogenaurach, Germany

Design: Kada Wittfeld Architektur

23 Sep 2009

Construction Progress – click on the image and watch the process unfold:

BRIEF R&D and Marketing Building with 400 sq meters of office space. ADDED VALUE A realization of the competition brief would have led to a comb- or double-comb structure with long halls, departments without views, and bad orientation. Instead the ring structure – with its central atrium and “laces” (connecting “catwalks”)– combines a series of advantages: all departments have a partial view onto the landscape; the laces create an efficient direct access without intersecting other departments. The laces and atrium become the communication platforms of the building.

ADIDAS LACES, HERZOGENAURACH | GERMANY The new adidas administration building “Laces“ forms a bright white counterpart to the horizontal black volume of the adjacent adidas Brand Center. The clearly contoured building fits into the existing “World of Sports” campus, with the campus park floating in the interior space, yielding a tempered atrium.

This plaza forms the heart of the new building – a forum and meeting space. The office floors organized around this central space provide views into the surrounding landscape of the Herzo- Base. Catwalks above the plaza link the departments, offering a high degree of interaction. Like laces, they tie the building together, forming a multilayer workspace and conveying an atmosphere of creativity.

Herzogenaurach Offices, Germany – Building Information

Location: Germany
Typology: office building
Construction volume: gfa 60.000 m² cubature 356.000 m³
Client: adidas ag
Realization: 2008-11
Competition: 1st prize 2007
Project manager: dirk zweering

2009-09-23
TOPPING-OUT CEREMONY

On September 23rd, 2009 the sporting goods manufacturer adidas celebrates a roofing ceremony of the new office building ‘LACES’ in its head office in Herzogenaurauch, Germany. The shell of the new building which will be finished in the 2nd quarter of 2011 already shows fine qualities which were very important to kadawittfeldarchitektur during the planning phase. The recently concreted floors and the catwalks, the “LACES” slowly form the new atrium step by step.

The lifting of the two trusses of the entrance area last week was the celebratory highlight of the structural works. The front truss overstretches an area of 60 m and has an overall dimension of 100m x 12m (length x height) and a total weight of 370 tons. One of the cranes, the Goliath crane (Demag T-Rex) is one of the biggest available cranes of northern Europe with a max. lift of up to 1200 tons. Only the crane hook itself weighs approx. 12 tons.

ADIDAS LACES head office Herzogenaurauch images / information from Kada Wittfeld Architektur

Kada Wittfeld Architektur

Location: Herzogenaurauch

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