Property+Product: Office, Training and Event Building in Mayen
The headquarters of slate producer Rathscheck is situated in a prominent location on the Katzenberg hill in Mayen, in the Eifel region. The new office, training, and event building replaces several older office buildings on the site, allowing the previously decentralized departments to be consolidated under one roof. Architecturally, the building appears as if carved from an oversized block of slate, thus embodying the timeless value and durability of slate as a material. While the company had long focused on small-format slate products for roofs and facades, it now primarily develops solutions for modern and contemporary architecture. The new building was designed to reflect this shift in focus. Therefore, a key aspect of the brief given to the architectural firm Thomas Koch from nearby Rengsdorf was the skillful presentation of the slate material. The building is designed to resemble an oversized block of slate, from which an inner courtyard has been carved out to the south, while another incision on the eastern side marks the entrance. From both sides, visitors enter a central foyer, around which a large lecture hall and its adjoining rooms are grouped. Behind the northern facade are several offices, accessed via an internal corridor. The remaining offices on the upper floor are reached via a staircase and elevator accessible from the foyer. Above the foyer is a spacious roof terrace.
