Feco-Forum / LRO Architekten

© Roland Halbe

Architects: LRO Architekten / Prof. Arno Lederer, Jórunn Ragnarsdóttir, Marc Oei
Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Project team: Katrin Holzer, Matthias Hackmann
Client: Feederle – Verwaltungsgesellschaft dbR
Structure: IGB – Beratende Ingenieure
Project Area: 3,500 sqm
Budget: $3.5 M Euro
Project year: 2005-2007
Photographs: Roland Halbe

The new feco-Forum building in Karlsruhe was erected in a faceless industrial area. The structure is divided into three parts: the ground-floor and first-floor accommodate a show room and office space. More office rooms, used exclusively by another firm, are located on the second floor.

To allow for this situation, a staircase was conceived for completely separate use. And finally, at the very top, an elongated floor plan affords a wonderful view of the hills to the east, just beyond the highway.

section 02

© Roland Halbe

Entrance into the building is defined by varying light: one steps out of the light into the murkiness of the staircase, only to emerge into the light of the show room again. At first, one perceives the frontal light from the windows on the street side, then skylights in the middle of the room, and finally the slanted light along the northern wall, accompanying the stair-like progression of the terraced exhibition space.

© Roland Halbe

The floor-finishing is done in burnished marble-speckled mastic asphalt. Fecos own partition-elements are used for most of the interior wall-structure.

A facade of corrugated, darkened aluminum gives the building its exterior character. The climatic treatment of the solid structure is accomplished by concrete core activation.