Rigi (BE)

Goddeeris is an industrial HVAC and piping company that has been experiencing accelerated growth in recent years. Their existing “collection” of company buildings was no longer sufficient and they needed to move to a new location to allow further growth and to build an efficient and employee-friendly environment. On the basis of the briefing of the everyday activities in the new headquarters, spatial organization charts and vehicular circulation strategies were developed. Given the nature of the activity, priority was given to the traffic on the site. Optimum traffic flow required large turning spaces that would greatly limit the maximum dimensions of an orthogonal building. The ambition to spatially extend this fluidity with undulating roofs would have had an adverse impact on the budget. Instead, the plan was extruded vertically and organic volumes were cut within to enhance the fluidity. The office and warehouse are located in the rear part of the plot while the parking shed occupies the front. This allows the workspace to enjoy the view of the open fields to the north while monitoring the vehicles entering and leaving the site. The building had to accommodate evolving organizational forms. As such it was ideal for teams to be able to assemble and group according to necessity. This led to a free plan with flexible workplaces. The meeting space between the workplace and office forms the heart of the company. It is the place where the ‘office meets the field’ before leaving for the worksites and after their return to the headquarters. A basic ambient lighting level of 200lux is supplemented with individual workplace lighting built into the mobile office furniture specially developed for this project. The frame above the desk creates an individual cocoon in the open space. The curved shape of the worktop makes clustering possible without imposing any direction. By strongly focusing on acoustics through the soft floor covering and sound absorptive ceilings and furniture, a quiet workplace was achieved that allowed employees to work individually or as a team without disturbing or being disturbed.