With the title ‘Added Value Space’, kadawittfeldarchitektur presented three realized office buildings at the Architektur Galerie Berlin in summer 2012.
Under the term ‘Added Value Space’ we understand spatial, communicative, economic or general social qualities that are not specified in the planning program, but can be achieved through architectonic spatial construction after pre-cisely analyzing all the parameters that determine the design.
Using the gallery’s window situation like a stage set, the exhibition presented itself not only to visitors but also to passers-by on Karl-Marx-Allee.
The exhibition translated the formative Added Value Spaces in large-scale models and ceiling-high collages com-posed of photographs and graphics. This backdrop offered not only gallery visitors, but also passersby, exemplary spaces and simultaneously created a public Added Value Space in miniature.
kadawittfeldarchitektur presened three completed office buildings and emphasized this idea of Added Value Space. The adidas Laces research and development center in Herzogenaurach (2011), the Aachen-Münchener insurances headquarters in Aachen (2010) and the main office of PATRIZIA Immobilien AG in Augs-burg (2010) are not only informed by stringent office structures. Breaking up the basic typological pattern of classical office buildings is achieved by inserting complex circulation and communication spaces that influence both the interior and exterior form. Adjusted to meet user-specific demands and urban context, these Added Value Spaces communicate an atmosphere of generosity. The interior space at adidas Laces spanned by catwalks, the boulevard in the AachenMünchener project that connects several building structures, and the space-expanding façade in the PATRIZIA AG building lend the projects a high degree of individual identity. All of the interior spaces possess the qualities of public, urban exterior space. Though these additional spaces were not originally planned in the program, they establish themselves as indispensable components and improve the buildings’ quality as modern communication hybrids.
Gerhard Wittfeld and Wolfgang Bachmann in conversation at ‘Architektur-Generator-Berlin’
