• Projekt
    Ovesco Endoscopy AG

  • Architekt
    METARAUM Architekten BDA

  • Bauherr
    Ovesco Endoscopy
    AG

  • Produkt
    Planum-Fassade 2700 m², NCS S6502Y

  • Verarbeiter
    Connect DWH GmbH

  • Fotos
    Zooey Braun Fotografie

Design and utilization concept
The aim of the building project was to combine the various uses of OVESCO Endoscopy AG, which had previously been scattered throughout the city, in one company building and thus to make the company visible in Tübingen’s new Technology and Science Park. The challenge was to combine the specific operational functions of administration and sales with their office space, of research and development with workshops and laboratories, and of clean room production, warehousing and logistics.
production, warehousing and logistics, not only in a structural ensemble, but also – in close physical contact with each other – in a single building. “Communication” as the central guiding idea of the operational concept and corporate culture consequently became the design motif for the building’s architecture.

Architectural and design quality of the building
In favor of a generous forecourt with a green area, the four-story building is set back on the site and makes maximum use of it in order to also offer an interior open space. The 2-story trapezoidal base building is based on the typology of the “atrium house”. A cube of deviating room height for clean room production is set into the atrium courtyard. With an attached two-story bar, the structure creates its unpretentious high point on the corner lot facing the valley, but still visible from the valley. It not only marks the entrance to the company, but also offers users a fascinating panoramic view of the Neckar valley and the surrounding area of Tübingen. The overall shape of the building develops from a single cast. The obtuse-angled building corner and the generous undercutting of the building in the entrance area, aims to lead the building smoothly around the bend in the street. The two-story warehouse is integrated at the end of the structure – with a logistics yard in front. Despite the highly diverse requirements of the areas of use in terms of design and construction, it is possible to formulate a uniform appearance that reflects the quality standards of the prestigious company as an image carrier.

Sustainability of the building
In addition to the choice of durable materials that retain their value, the flexibility of the spatial structure, the controllability of all operational processes with regard to low-energy operation, the economical use of building services installations and attention to low consumption values, the gain of regenerative energies through a large solar system (940 kWh/ kWp per year) and the avoidance of intervention in the grown ground for a basement, the correct orientation of the building in order to reduce energy loads was a particularly important criterion for the sustainability of the building. It is the sum of finely tuned measures in the design and planning process that makes the building a sustainable structure, not spectacular individual measures.

Construction
The multi-story portions of the building are designed as a reinforced concrete grid slab with composite columns. The dimensions and spans are designed to use the material sparingly. The uniform construction grid allows a maximum free, flexible floor plan. The adjusted production area required its own self-supporting construction of joist beams, which also allowed for an intensively planted garden area in the atrium area of the 1st floor. The 2-storey warehouse integrated into the building envelope in the south is designed as a steel structure and DOMICO cassettes form the wall structure here.

Facade design
The PLANUM system elements from DOMICO were used as the basic elements of the vertically structured façade grid. The façade design was intended to form a calm, rather closed frame towards the outside and towards the commercial buildings in the surrounding area, in order to lend the greatest possible effect to the inviting open gesture of the generously glazed entrance area, which allows a view from the forecourt via the spacious foyer into the depths of the light atrium courtyard. Towards the atrium courtyard, on the other hand, generously glazed, the rhythmically structured metallic shell of the exterior facades represents the technical character of the building, as a development and production facility for high-tech products. Although PLANUM is a proven, robust and relatively inexpensive product, the appearance of the facades is high-quality, generous (due to the large dimensions of the panels) and compatible in terms of the formation of high-quality details, which could be executed appropriately to the external image of the innovative company. The effect of high-quality and precise elements was achieved in particular through the elaboration of the joining principles and well thought-out details – especially through the careful setting and detailing of the joints, beads and butt joints between the metal panels, corner formations and roof edge terminations. The expression of the facade is complemented by the addition of a particularly strikingly shaped special component, which is responsible for the plasticity of the facade: These special elements, made of folded steel sheets, form a fixed sunshade in front of the openings of the perforated facade, designed according to the position of the sun, and a light reflector for the interior spaces. In combination with textile hangings, especially on the large glass facades of the atrium courtyard, the building can be effectively protected from the sun in this way. The sharp-edged folded special elements of the metal façade, which appear as if they were pinned over the window opening, are a deliberate reminiscence of attachments of invasive medical devices, which are manufactured in the company and called “clips”. These “clips” convey the credo of OVESCO Endoscopy AG to the outside world: innovation and precision.

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