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Article from issue 7+8/2007 »Steel Construction«

Adi Dassler Brand Center in Herzogenaurach

documentation p. 816 - 822
Architect querkraft architekten | Structural Engineer Werkraum |

Drafts
1:10000 Site plan
1:20 Vertical section
1:5 Horizontal sections
1:5 Vertical sections
1:500 Floor plans
1:500 Sections

The name of Adidas is everywhere in its home town of Herzogenaurach. In 1999 this global sporting goods manufacturer moved to a larger site on the edge of town with space for an extended complex comprising a new headquarters, commercial space, hotel and other facilities. In 2006 the Brand Centre was completed. The new headquarters building is a gleaming black cube, 170 m long by 70 m wide. Part of its volume is buried underground. By day the reflective glass facade merges with the surroundings, but at night it transforms into an illuminated shop window.
Visitors enter the building at the highest point of the foyer, descending dramatically via broad steps to a large cube inserted into the space. Images are constantly projected onto the upper part of the wall. Inside the cube is a presentation of shop concepts and product ranges; the interior is divisible into three sections by sliding partition walls.
Above ground the entire building was constructed from prefabricated components. The need to keep the sharply angled rigid glass skin as free as possible from large wind loads and movements in the 10,000 square-metre roof surface prompted the idea of decoupling the roof from the facade for expansion movements, but enabling wind loads to be directed from the glass skin into the roof structure. Hydraulic shock-absorbers are used here as connecting elements.