Page 190 - AIT1018_E-Paper

BÜRO UND VERWALTUNG • OFFICE BUILDINGS TECHNISCHER AUSBAU • TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

O n an area of 3,600 square metres, the new Coeur Cologne administrative building
faces the north side of the main station. The design by the MSM Meyer Schmitz-
Morkramer architects had won the first prize in a competition held by Allianz Real
Estate. In 2017, the new building was completed after just two and a half years and the
almost 600 employees of the HRS hotel service platform moved in. The main entrance
clearly stands out as a four-level city window from the urban, white metal-glass grid
façade and continues into the depth of the space as a large-dimensioned, green atrium.
The premises of the HRS Group are distributed over several floors. In the left part of the
ground floor, a cafeteria was added; on the right is a large auditorium for the tenants
as well as a business lounge. On the upper floors, the office areas designed to be open
space meander around green atriums and terraces and provide 75 percent of the work-
stations with a view of the Cathedral. An additional highlight for HRS as a tenant is the
so-called Skygarden with a panoramic view of the city and the Rhine. HRS was free to
design the tenant space. The company explicitly wanted an international flair and com-
missioned the Cologne Lepel & Lepel office with its implementation. The planners deve-
loped the concept of “The World as a Guest of Cologne”. Each office floor has the
distinctive look of a continent expressed by colour accents, materials, patterns and
motifs. Thus walls with motifs of worldwide destinations make each level unique,
above all in the open kitchenettes, lounges as well as meeting- and conference rooms.
The unpretentious, subdued colouring and the design of the actual workstations are
thus enhanced.
The world as a guest of Cologne is the motto of the planners

For all the prestigious and semi-public rooms, the agLicht lighting-planning office in
Bonn developed a concept perfectly in line with the interior design. The architectural
lighting thus forms a synthesis with various decorative components which adds varied
atmospheres and individual moods. Basic illumination of the business lounge and the
conference rooms on the ground floor as well as all the semi-public rooms on the upper
levels is provided by close to 500 circular ceiling-mounted downlights and spotlights
from the Boxy range by Deltalight which elegantly blend in with their compactness and
unpretentious colouring. In addition, varying decorative pendant luminaires take up the
theme of the individual continents on the respective office floors. Cubic counters sepa-
rate the contemporarily furnished lounges from the kitchenettes designed by Lepel &
Ein 20 Meter hohes Atrium bildet den Empfangsbereich. • The entrance area is an atrium with a height of 20 metres. Lepel as communication zones. Depending on the motto of the respective continent, the
counters are of robust Corten steel, colourfully tiled or urban cool. Only the floor in each
kitchenette is uniformly equipped with vinyl in a wood look. Two dimmable Boxy pairs
equipped with LEDs and with a beam angle of 33 degrees provide the general lighting
or illuminate the walls with their motifs. Integrating the luminaires was difficult due to
the construction of the cooling-panel ceiling so that all the installations by the tenants
had to be surface mounted. The conference rooms on the office floors are named after
the metropolises where HRS has a subsidiary. Walls have motifs showing a typical buil-
ding from cities such as Warsaw, Mumbai or Shanghai.

The design idea is also reflected in the lighting concept
Das Gebäude wertet den Kölner Bahnhofsvorplatz auf. • The building enhances the Cologne Bahnhofsvorplatz.
The highlight of the ambitious design- and lighting concept is, however, the business
lounge which opens with generous glazing to the station. Since the rooms are in the
south-eastern part of the Coeur Cologne, the theme South-East Asia suggested itself.
Lepel & Lepel implemented it with a floor covering of bamboo, green seating furniture
and wallpaper as well as natural and artificial plants. Besides various pendant luminai-
res of wood or metal, basic illumination is again provided by flexibly adjustable Boxy
spotlights. The windowless auditorium also has motifs on the walls suggesting a forest.
Unlike in the lounge area, here the plant motif was implemented as printed and acou-
stically effective textile covering backlit by continuous LED modules. With DMX control,
the natural course of daylight can be simulated with changing light colours. This increa-
ses the receptivity and concentration ability of the seminar participants. Thanks to the
creativity of the architects, interior designers and light planners as well as to the conti-
nuous involvement of the ambitious client, a unique, varied working world was created
for HRS which reflects the worldwide engagement of the company. With its inviting kit-
chenettes and lounges, the location is consistently geared to informal communication.
The environment certainly also contributes to recruiting new emplo yees. These should
not be long in coming since HRS still has many plans.

190 • AIT 10.2018