The f m b architekten created a new building for the Greiner Company that responds to the context and simultaneously transports the values of the brand's identity.
The Greiner Company, a family based business founded 1922 in the small town Pleidelsheim near Ludwigsburg, Germany, is known for its high quality chairs and seats and is selling products all over the world in the fields of beauty, healthcare and automotive – at its own brand or as supplier. The old headquarter with its small client-center and showroom couldn’t hold up with that progress any more.
Architects decided jointly with the client to create a pure, reduced Shape that is inspired by the timeless qualities of classical modernism. The façade of the building is worked in exposed concrete, giving the structure a modest but individual impact to that heterogenic place.
The cut out roof-terrace reduces the shape at the main-roads intersection so that the volume of the structure reacts sensibly to the height of the surrounding buildings. At the intersection the building opens its exhibition-floor over the corner through big showcase-windows to the public - not primarily to catch new clients, but stimulating the public space.
Organized on four levels, the flexible and multifunctional exhibition-room and customer-center is reached on entry-level and can also be used for special events when needed. However, the headquarters representative “heart” is reached over the low entrance-room: A triple storied, open space reception-hall made out of exposed concrete walls with poured in lamps - hosting a sculptural spiral staircase. It connects the upper floors with offices, conference-room, accounting-area and the roof-terrace.
In Addition to the spiral staircase, the whole building is connected to an elevator and a necessary evacuation staircase, which provides a short internal connection for the staff and a shortcut to the nearby production-hall.
