Name: Paper production plant palm
Location: Aalen, Germany
Architecture firm: BRT Architekten
Architect: Hadi Teherani (Iranian Architect)
Date: 2001 - 2002
Gross floor area: 1.883 qm
Project management: Arne Erichson, Christina Tibi
Client: Papierfabrik Palm GmbH & Co.
Photos: Jörg Hempel, Aachen
The roof of the administration building from the company Palm, demonstrates visibly, from a distance the product that the company produces: it floats above the building, like a sheet of paper. The new building, which sits at an angle to the existing building, mirrors the volume, the facade raster, and the proportions of the existing building. It is conceived as being a two-storey, concrete-frame building, with a one-storey basement, surrounded by a curtain-wall facade. The interior is characterised by a central atrium, which is open from the ground floor to the roof. Here, the building concept is also made particularily apparent: the symolising of paper-production through the presence of the folded roof, whose underside is illuminated to emphasise the free form. Around the central atrium are the offices, which are also glazed towards the corridors, thus allowing light to flood the building, and thereby ensuring a generous, open atmosphere within, which seeks to extend the character of the generous entrance hall into the workspace.