FORM FOLLOWS TECHNOLOGY

The key question to our client as a global player in the aerospace industries was whether or not architecture can express and indeed instigate an holistic understanding of their corporate culture both for customers as well as for the employees.
It seemed easier to transform a strong technological competence into architecture, but how do you express in plan a strong customer focus and a culture of modern team work with a high degree of flexibility and self responsibility?
In our final diagram for the new customer and training centre of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace core competences and corporate culture find expression in an oval atrium. It is this point where the public and the corporation meet, where employees discuss problems and where customer service teams are trained in turbine maintenance.
Flexible office spaces around the atrium contain the firm’s control centre for its various corporate activities and may be partitioned off and furnished as either clusters of office cubicles or large open-plan offices, team offices or flexible office landscape.
An access ring around the atrium allows for short distances between the different teams, so that each individual project team is free to arrange and furnish its work spaces freely and flexibly, extending them or making them smaller as needed.
The ‘open house’ concept corresponds to DaimlerChrysler’s modern, customer-oriented corporate philosophy, based on network processes, in which team spirit, high motivation and effective communication stand for the firm’s conception of success.
The technological aspect however springs out in the details and materials. The innovative double south façade has a specially developed curved solar screen whilst the rear façade deserves special mention due to the new material used – ‘Structuran’: This glass produced from recycled crushed glass materials from TV monitors is absolutely weather-proof and easy to clean.
The right diagram, light materials and redefined details evoke a certain spirit of aviation and add up to an architectural reflection of the corporate identity.