Leonardo Glass Cube
Leonardo Glass Cube is a glass-fronted pavilion in Bad Driburg, Germany designed by 3Deluxe. Designed for the Glaskoch Corporation the pavilion is used for informal meetings and corporate hospitality. Having developed a number of temporary architectures and several virtual architectural concepts, the Leonardo Glass Cube is the first permanent building implemented by 3deluxe. The result of the interdisciplinary design process is an integrative concept that combines architecture, interior design, graphic design and landscape architecture into a complex aesthetic entity.
Leonardo Glass Cube is a glass-fronted pavilion in Bad Driburg, Germany designed by 3Deluxe. Designed for the Glaskoch Corporation the pavilion is used for informal meetings and corporate hospitality. Having developed a number of temporary architectures and several virtual architectural concepts, the Leonardo Glass Cube is the first permanent building implemented by 3deluxe. The result of the interdisciplinary design process is an integrative concept that combines architecture, interior design, graphic design and landscape architecture into a complex aesthetic entity.
As an atmospheric brand world, the Leonardo Glass Cube conveys to guests and the staff alike the company’s philosophy and visions in a stimulating manner. The open floor plan layout of the clearly designed and multi-functional Leonardo building enables an integrative linkage of product presentation zones, seminar and meeting rooms, inspiring work areas and a lot more across a total area of 1,200 square meters.
With the opening of the Leonardo glass cube in Bad Driburg, Germany the vision of developing glass as a construction material is increasingly becoming popular with architects. In a unique and innovative architecture, the multifunctional building unites an academy area as well as a design lab. The liaison of soft, organic structures and a clear, linear glass cover convey ingeniously the three core brand values - Inspiration, Emotion and Quality.
Unlike previous interior projects, mostly designed as self-contained experience spaces separated from the exterior and the architectural context, the interior of the Leonardo Glass Cube is closely interrelated to its surroundings. This aspect allows for a reinterpretation of one of 3deluxe’s essential leitmotifs:the staged overlaying of real and virtual elements with the intention of changing both the space and the observer’s patterns of perception.
GLASS FACADE
The glass façade of the building represents not only the interface between interior and exterior, but also the passage to a hyper-naturalistic world with heightened aesthetic appeal. A transparent print slides into the insight or outlook as a subtly visible image plane. The graphically illustrated elements displayed on it were derived from the architecture and the surrounding landscape. They create a subtle puzzle, mingling with the reflections of their models in reality.
The edificial structure consists of two formally contrasting elements: A geometrically stringent, cube-like shell volume and a freeform positioned centrally in the interior. The undulating, curved white wall encases an introverted exhibition space and its other side circumscribes the extroverted hallway along the glass façade.
Three white sculptural structures so-called genetics connect the separate zones of the building to each other. On the glass façade genetics appear again in a two-dimensional version. The superimposed pilaster strips are continued in a network of white concrete pathways that surrounds the entire building and lets it grow together with its location.
The façade design not only entails references to the location and the materiality of the company’s products, but also highlights a key feature in the Leonardo brand philosophy: a modern, inspiring design that fires the imagination and enables people to constantly perceive and shape their environment anew.
INTERIOR OF THE GLASS CUBE
Entering the Glass Cube through the ground-floor main entrance, visitors encounter a space that opens up not just horizontally, but also upwards and downwards. The ground-floor bridge affords a generous view of the main exhibition area one storey below and provides an initial point of orientation in the edifice as a whole. On both floors the wall rolls in to form niches that are used for various functions such as themed product orchestrations and meeting lounges.
In particular in the breaks in the wall these lines predominate as a significant graphic design element that is continued on the ceiling as a system of ventilation joints. On the side facing the façade, the material nature of the white surface is visually dissolved by means of a layer of gauze suspended in front. Dynamically programmed artificial light as well as the incidence of daylight sets colour highlights in the purely white interior and create a permanent change of atmosphere.
By melding medium format images of 6 x 7 cm with computer visualizations of the interior the design devised by 3deluxe graphics brings together two media that are completely different in aesthetic and crafts terms: digitally generated pixel images and analog photography. The result: a pixel-perfect artwork sized 6 x 96 m with a resolution of 100 dpi (which involves an immense volume of data).
The technology, at present only available in the US, was used for the first time on such a large scale. The undulating, curved white wall encases an introverted exhibition space and its other side circumscribes the extroverted hallway along the glass façade.
This “space within space” arrangement meets the usage requirement of an artificially-lit product presentation just as much as the high demands placed on it by those lingering in the building. The hallway, which is truly bathed in natural daylight, can be used for informal meetings and events as well as short breaks. As such it is fitted out for the most part with made-to-measure lounge furniture.
One of the ‘genetics’ marks the access point to the lobby, which is set back from the façade inside the free form. The vertical pathways through the two-storey building generally proceed along the fluently formed boundary, in the centre of which a void crossed by bridges connects top floor and basement.
STRUCTURE
The organic shape of the objects necessitated an elaborate construction method: Their surfaces are each composed of two deep-drawn semi-shells made of acrylic material, for the production of which original size models first had to be made. The substructure consists of steel tubing, encased in a timber skeleton frame. It was printed onto a foil in 48 segments that were then laminated onto the back of the glass in the interspaces between the panes. Another special feature lies in the transparent quality of the print in both directions, rendering the conventional method of dot raster grids superfluous.
The structure of the free-form inner wall represents an innovation in dry construction: As the plasterboard panels of the outer layer can only be bent one-dimensionally, experiments were conducted that involved interlacing mutually curved panels in complex shapes. In particular in the breaks in the wall the resulting joint design predominates as a significant graphic design element.
In order to ensure that the wall realised corresponds precisely with the 3D computer model, the full length projections of the wall segments were divided into a dense grid of measurement points. On the side facing the façade, the material nature of the white surface is visually dissolved by means of a layer of gauze suspended in front. The natural daylight pouring in produces dazzling moiré effects in the translucent fabric’s delicate texture, which in turn are reflected in the glass facade.’
This process of visual concentration creates a more intense impression of reality than the direct perception of real objects would allow. In addition, through changes of perspective and the incidence of light changing with daytime and seasons, a wide variety of appearances is made possible. They lend the building poetic quality – stories can be discovered, artificial landscapes explored.
GLASKOCH CORPORATION
Glaskoch is a family-owned business based in Bad Driburg, Germany, and Oliver Kleine is the fifth generation of his family to run the company. Plenty of enthusiasm, lots of ideas and a nique brand concept have made Glaskoch one of today’s leading European suppliers of glassware and gift items.Glaskoch, a name which symbolises not only 150 years of corporate history, but also a forward - looking vision and the people who make it a reality.
According to Mareike Dietrich of 3deluxe the Leonardo glass cube symbolises our brand. It demonstrates our commitment to truly live out our vision of turning modern glassware into a lifestyle. The glass cube uses architecture to unite Leonardo’s core values of inspiration, emotion and quality. As a brand experience area, it expresses the Leonardo world and its brand personality.
At the centre of the glass cube is a large modular showroom for the life interior and fashion by Leonardo product ranges. In this brand world, customers are able to completely immerse themselves in the Leonardo and experience that glass as a material has a long tradition behind it. Our core area of expertise is glass. That’s not something we’re going to change, either now or in the future.
PROJECT TEAM
Architects: 3deluxeClient: Glaskoch B. Kock Jr. GmbH & Co. KG
Product/Designer: Contract Anthracite Lappato
