German insurance company LVA

The headquarters of German insurance company LVA – a workplace architecture which responds imaginatively to the complex requirements of the client’s brief. Architect Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner faced not just the organizational demands of LVA for a modern workplace but also the planning constraints imposed by the Lubek local authorities to create a building sympathetic to the massing of the medieval town centre.

A dramatic entrance is located at the centre as hub for the workplace. It is here that staff are encouraged to meet informally and to gather for events and functions. This space features a series of converging circulation routes that draw people throught a range of facilities, including a restaurant and library.

Throughout the workplace, smaller ‘centres’ of gravity’ (towards which staff are drawn) have created to allow people to collaborate and dwell in ‘sunspot’ – key open communication areas designed to provide a stimulating atmosphere for shirt, informal meeting. In these sunspots, tea and coffee points, designed as open kitchens with elegant, café-life surroundings give views to the landscape outside.

1. Site plan

2. Dramatic central focal point with its converging stairways and circulation routres that pull people together.

3.The building provides a variety of places for people to work, both inside and outside including the gardens and landscapred roof top areas.

4.Converging and crossing circualtion routes and staircases bring people together, creating the opportunity for chance encourters or informal meetings, and fortersing the sense of community.

More can be found on their website:
http://www.behnisch.com/site_files/pdf/15.pdf

-chuan dian-