adidas LACES

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.

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.

Typology
office building

Gross
GFA 62.000 m²

Realization
2008-2011

Client
adidas AG World of Sports

Competition
1st prize 2007

Architect
kadawittfeldarchitektur

Project partner
Dirk Zweering

Advice and guidance systems
büro uebele
Stuttgart

Design office furniture systems
Kinzo
Berlin

Photographer
Werner Huthmacher

Awards
Office Application Award 2009: Best Innovative Concept