DETAIL Project of the Month — March 2008
Printing Works and Media House in Augsburg
Architects: ott architekten, Augsburg; Wolfgang Ott, Ulrike Seeger
Assistant: Andreas Petermann
Structural engineer: Türk Statik, Augsburg
This monolithic structure — a printing works — is a welcome sight in an otherwise uninspiring landscape of industrial buildings on the edge of Augsburg. A simple, pragmatic volume, with a distinctive language of forms, it houses production facilities and a cafeteria on the ground floor and offices and an apartment for the managing director on the upper floor.
A tight budget and schedule prompted the choice of a facade system of prefabricated sandwich panels incorporating anthracite-coloured precast-concrete components. The prefabricated curtain wall features three different modules, variously combined to suit the functional requirements of the different parts of the building.
The rounded corners of the building form another standard module. Rounded window openings and sunblinds in shades of red and orange give a striking character to the punctuated facade.
At ground-floor level the facade retreats to signal the way to the entrance. Inside, the double-height foyer opens up the space, enabling visual connections between the two levels. Coloured built-in units and full-height swing doors deliberately contrast with the rough look of the precast concrete floors and exposed cable ducts. The aubergine-coloured reception desk is shaped to echo the theme of the rounded windows.
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