Architecture for a science-driven society
In the north of the Wolfsburg borough of Hageberg stands the first of a total of five buildings on the 38-acre MobileLifeCampus. Spread over more than 25,000 square metres of building land, the MobileLifeCampus has been home since the autumn of 2006 to a number of Volkswagen AG institutions and the "AutoUni". Volkswagen AG aims to establish a communications and research centre on its MobileLifeCampus.
The concept for the 156-metre-long, 54-metre-wide and 22-metre-high building was devised by Henn Architects of Munich and Berlin. It resembles a band folded through space that changes direction diagonally, in the process linking spaces and courtyards and organising them into a liveable logic. The horizontally arranged storey levels are integrated into the pattern of folds. The architects pursue the built transformation of a matrix in their concept. This prominently involves lending effect to the idea of generating knowledge in spaces that arise through overlays and overlaps. Project leader Marc Ulrich calls the uncommon architectural concept a "communicational provocation". The architectural structure recalls a collection of "twisted bands" - "bands of knowledge that generate a high density of knowledge and large number of contact points" - and hence resemble a "super-synapsis". This architecture symbolically represents the global-reach private university, in which a great number of themes relating to the world, research and science are collated under one roof.
Architecture has in the past frequently adhered to the philosophy of "form follows function". Buildings were divided up by function and the hierarchical order was legible. The overriding spatial impression left by office buildings was of separate rooms interconnected by long corridors. These days, there is again an increasing preference for open working environments. Work is rendered particularly inspiring through the interplay of concentration at one's own workplace and communication with colleagues on a team basis and at varying locations. The architecture on the MobileLifeCampus is designed to further the flow of knowledge and hence the work process. Transparency, brightness, open high spaces and visual connectivity between the various project areas make it easier to work in networks as well as engendering trust. The building is accordingly characterised by short routes, openness and scope for informal communication.
The building's imaginative structuring is echoed in that of the north and south-facing atrium facades, which are 22 metres high and 43 metres broad and fashioned as massive bands made up of closed and transparent areas. Its transparent, diagonally interlocking units covering an area of 25,000 square metres - one enclosed by an inspirational ovoid tract of greenery - offer a great many points of communication, terraces and function areas both indoors and out. The architects have come up with external landscaping for the campus whose studiedly wrought appearance emphasizes the role of human intervention. The 500 apple trees planted at regular intervals on the plot further heighten the effect of artifice and intent.
The interior is defined by a spectacular, glass-topped atrium extending over all four floors. Located here is the structural and organisational centre of the MobileLifeCampus, the principal place of assembly to and from which all routes lead. The sense of openness is underscored by the deliberate overlapping and criss-crossing of routes. The seminar rooms are freely arranged around the atrium and are projected into the centre at differing heights.
Henn Architects opted for the FSB 1144 door handle and the FSB 3444 window handle, both by Jasper Morrison, for this project. The windows and internal doors feature hardware in aluminium, though stainless steel was chosen for some doors for reasons of fire safety. Jasper Morrison's work is of a timeless, unobtrusive design that blends in well with the modern architectural concept. The aluminium finish of the pulls and lever handles is mirrored throughout the building on banisters, glass facades and lamp sockets. The architects chose the Morrison handle because it is both "ergonomic" and "of homogeneous design". As Ulrich explains, "It was crucial for us that the handle did not conjure up fears about entry and that it can be operated with ease no matter what country you come from." The Morrison handle's "beaky extremity" provides "gripping volume for the two outermost fingers" and is hence "good to hold" and "user-friendly" in equal measure.
The architects associate the Morrison fittings with the words "haptic, curving, soft". Thus handles and pulls at the MobileLifeCampus are just as true to the motto "form follows people" in the way they are designed and finished as is the campus architecture. The architecture for new work environments is once again increasingly taking stock of basic human needs.
Photos: H.G. Esch
