Ludloff Ludloff Architekten: ophelis exhibition hall  - best architects 23

Ludloff Ludloff Architekten

ophelis exhibition hall

best architects 23

commercial/industrial buildings

Place

Bad Schönborn, Germany

Photos

Jan Bitter

Description

In an inhospitable industrial area on the southern outskirts of Bad Schönborn, an exhibition hall has been built entirely of timber for the furniture manufacturer ophelis. The exhibition space, which is diffusely lit by a continuous band of skylights, deliberately excludes the urban environment and creates its own artificial interior world. The building is entered via a slowly ascending ramp that leads into an elongated conical room. This entrance space gradually opens up and merges into the hall volume. The roof of the exhibition hall is supported by seven slightly angled double columns, with a treetop-like arrangement of press-glued wooden ribs strengthening the cross laminated timber ceiling elements for a ceiling structure spanned in multiple axes. Selectively arranged skylights cast shaded light through these artificial treetops, creating an inner world that consciously evokes associations with natural spaces. Not in a «white cube» but against this «atmospheric background», the collections for our future working and living worlds are presented. The adjoining meeting rooms are used both for the collective exchange of information on product design, production, marketing and sales among the staff and for in-depth discussions with customers.