haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050

Description

The former barracks in southwestern Darmstadt were comprehensively renaturalised for the 55,000 square metre Altanura Campus. Sealed areas were broken up and the resulting material was used to build on the open spaces. The centrepiece is the Altanura World of Work – a light, open office landscape for up to 500 employees. With a total floor area of 13,500 square metres, this is the largest adobe office building in Europe. Clay regulates the room climate in a natural way and has a positive effect on room acoustics. An earth duct, which supplies the climate-neutral building with fresh air from the neighbouring forest, bright rooms, flexible workstations, a rainwater cistern, as well as a photovoltaic and geothermal system all comply with the highest ecological standards. The entire ground floor functions as a meeting place, as a space for communication which promotes relaxed encounters between visitors and employees. Stairs, bridges and walkways provide links to and between the curved office floors and create horizontal and vertical neighbourhoods. The Altanura Campus also serves as a learning and meeting place for people from the region. There is a public restaurant on the ground floor of the World of Work, organic public allotments, a school garden, raised beds, a wildlife pond, sensory herb gardens as well as an amphitheatre made of concrete fragments from the former tank training grounds. The grounds are open from sunrise to sunset.