Dr. Babor, THE CURVE New administration building, swinging facade.
Dr. Babor, THE CURVE New administration building. Photo: Olaf Rohl
Sarstedt, new administration building – welcome with spacious campus.
CORPORATE IDENTITY MEETS WORKPLACE QUALITY
The office generates a highly efficient added value with regards to each specific investment. Their clients consequently consist of successful family enterprises as well as large corporations with a strong company culture, from health and science to industry and administration through to airports and renowned hotels: “In consideration of design-, ecologically- and economically related aspects, our clients strive to optimise their production and administrative processes while improving the work environment for their employees. Furthermore, the design will portray the competencies of the company.” Apart from the buildings themselves, shaping the surroundings has become an equally important aspect at K2 – such as tran82 |
Issue 95 |
July 2022
scribing the formal language of a college campus to the outdoor areas of administrative and production sites as a significant improvement of the work/life balance and quality. In addition to implementing new materials, a prominent part of the project development at K2 is the computerassisted draft, facilitating early-stage optimisation and a short building process. Founded in the late ‘90s by Joachim Kranendonck and Klaus Kampmann in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Architekten K2 GmbH took the step into autonomy with the idea of conquering the industrial buildings sector – a niche that hitherto only few architects had devoted themselves to: “Architec-
ture was not viewed as a cultural term with regard to jobs and production back then.” One of the first big clients was the Lufthansa AG, for whom the office creates airport lounges throughout the world. With additional branches in Wiesbaden and Cologne, the team nowadays consists of around 40 employees. For the near future, Architekten K2 GmbH will further develop their successful new concepts, with a special focus on Hybrid Work solutions. Right now, the team is working on a pioneering laboratory building for a renowned company, as well as a research airport building, where energy-efficient transport drones will be developed and tested: “The big challenge lies in the development of autonomous, sustainable concepts reaching far beyond the current standards. In the end, the goal of each single project is a positive CO2 balance.” www.architekten-k2.de
TEXT: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI
Whether office, laboratory or airport lounge, hotel or storage and distribution hall, Architekten K2 GmbH always create an individual branding, tailor-cut to the respective investor: “We provide an enterprise with a face.”