adesso SE | Germany
Vandaag, 00:00
Project: adesso SE, Dortmund // Germany
General contractor: Freundlieb Bauunternehmung GmbH & Co. KG, Dortmund // Germany
Fabricator + Installer: Henke AG, Hagen // Germany
Façade system: Riveted/Screwed
Year of construction: 2023
Product: ALUCOBOND® A2 solid Beige + anodized look C2 Light Gold
Photos: Daniel Sumesgutner
Swarm intelligence
In photography, it is the number of pixels, i.e. the fine granular detail and the scattering of light which sharpen the contours. A clear image requires both contours and complexity, just like this unexpectedly intricate façade in Dortmund, a surprise for motorists driving out of town on the busy B1 urban motorway. It forms a comb structure with the back of the building running alongside the road; on the other side, three building tracts, with two courtyards in between, branch off from the main section and open up towards the south. The building is the latest addition at adesso, one of the leading IT companies in Germany. The noisy but high-profile location will, no doubt, be an advantage for the company, providing the designers succeed in creating a clearly defined street-facing northern façade. One which does not, as so often the case, just leave a vague, blurred impression on the memory when glimpsed by those speeding past. Bearing this in mind, the designers at the construction firm Freundlieb, opted for ALUCOBOND® tray panels in varying depths for the outer building surfaces, and they used them to cover the six-storey building from top to bottom. The building envelope looks like a shoal of fish creating a larger contour using swarm intelligence. In this respect, the façade is quite an apt representation of a software developer’s image. The scale-like features are staggered in relation to each other and generate different sized shadows, which vary over the course of the day, and present altering perspectives of the same side of the building. The façade is given depth and vigour. Façade design and production were both carried out with mathematical precision: each fish scale, clad in beige ALUCOBOND®, frames a band of windows. The band itself comprises a series of upright windows and closed surfaces in anodised look C2 Light Gold. ALUCOBOND®. The façade is, indeed, the sum of numerous separate yet identical parts, which add up perfectly along its length and fit into a very exact façade grid. Both a complex substructure and precision installation for the ALUCOBOND® tray panels were essential to make this possible. Using 3D computer modelling, the team designed the building envelope and, to ensure accuracy, had all the individual parts calculated and cut to size accordingly. Nothing could be more appropriate since this is a building for an IT company which, among other things, wants to push ahead digitalisation in the construction industry. The smallest parts, the finest granular particles, fit together precisely and intelligently to form a complex big picture with clear contours. This holds true for fish, photography and architecture.