In Progress: Schwäbischer Verlag / Wiel Arets Architects

Architects: Wiel Arets Architects
Location: Karlstraße 20, Ravensburg, Germany
Design Team: Wiel Arets, Bettina Kraus, Carsten Hilgendorf, Uta Böcker, Tobias Gehrke, Ramón Alvarez-Roa, Ole Hallier
Area: 13,800 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Jan Bitter

Collaborators: Janosch Welzien, Jasper Stevens, Martin Tessarz, Tobias Bam- berg, Steffen Winkler, Carlatta Giacomin
Consultants: ABT, Eicher + Pauli, Winter·lngenieure
Client: Schwäbischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG

The six working groups are housed in separate glass-walled office ‘villas’, whose proportions and dimensions are based on existing urban villas, and which are disposed on the several plots so as to integrate with the surrounding historic context. At the ground floor, housing café, conference and event center, and walled gardens, the six office cubes are interconnected and joined by a transparent glazed outer membrane.

This glass membrane wraps interior and exterior spaces, both imparting a singular identity to the project as well as allowing the individual buildings to be distinguished, producing an ambiguous and fluctuating spatial interpretation. The large structure is perceived as both several individual buildings, sharing a common enclosing skin, and one continuous diaphanous urban enclosure, interweaving interior and exterior spaces. For those working in the building, the smaller areas of each working unit allow a sense of place and comfort, giving a domestic character to the experience of inhabitation.