InnoDom Cologne is an innovation and start-up center designed by German architectural studio kadawittfeldarchitektur for the Cologne University Foundation. Located on the University of Cologne’s Lindenthal campus, the five-story building fits seamlessly within the urban fabric, its projecting sections and recesses referencing its surroundings and corresponding to the heights of adjacent buildings.
More than a conventional office building, InnoDom Cologne is designed as a “think tank with the feel of an industrial workshop”: the building provides a variety of co-working, meeting, and hang-out spaces for Gateway (the University of Cologne’s Excellence Start-up Center), student start-up founders, and service providers supporting start-ups.
Studies in volume and shape
kadawittfeldarchitektur (named after founding partners Klaus Kada and Gerhard Wittfeld) carried out studies into InnoDom Cologne’s volume, shape, and outer skin — based on models and sketches of varying scales — to ascertain the building’s most advantageous shape and fit: “Recesses and projecting elements in the building’s volume reference the lines of vision, heights, and scales of the neighboring structures,” explains the studio. “The building’s polygonal shape respects distances, making access readily legible from the outside.” During early planning stages, spatial requirements and functional sequences were determined in participatory workshops with various start-ups and Gateway staff.
LIKE IT
One notable aspect of the building is its two double-story spaces with panoramic glazing and bright, monochromatic colors. From the outside, these spaces appear like beacons, especially when its dark; inside, the spaces provide users with opportunities to lounge about, inspire one another, kick-start conversations, experience new things, inform themselves, and touch base — encapsulated in the acronym LIKE IT.
The turquoise-colored “LIKE IT 1” is on the third and fourth floors. A semitransparent layer of colored expanded metal highlights the space’s different uses, including “a climbing/hanging wall”. (Actual color: RAL 5018.)
The yellow-colored “LIKE IT 2” interacts with the city at street level and is defined by a staircase with staggered seating. The use of colored expanded metal preserves a view into InnoDom's entrance area and cafe. (Actual color: RAL 1021.)
Contemporary meets industrial aesthetic
The building’s interiors are designed to create a space with the air of a combined think tank, workshop, and hang-out, both serious-minded and playful. Large, open-plan areas and small offices, warm and raw materials, bright and muted colors, provide a contemporary meets industrial aesthetic, from the colorful coffee points on each floor to the use of cement-bonded wood wool panels.
A range of functional modules placed around the access core — coffee and copy points, lockers, seating niches, video-conferencing and workshop boxes — create colorful accents against the neutral grey tones. Sound-absorbent wall surfaces, ceiling absorbers, and furnishings attenuate noise, helping to improve concentration and productivity.
“Much attention was paid to sustainability in the choice of materials,” says kadawittfeldarchitektur. Examples include: Troldtekt cement-bonded wood wool panels used on the building’s core (C2C and GSBC certified); NoraPlan rubber used on the upper floors (GSBC and Blauer Engel certified); Ligno wood acoustic cladding used on the “home bases” (natureplus certified). “The office fit-out relies largely on steel, wood, linoleum, and fabrics that can, by and large, be recycled or possess a high proportion of recycled materials,” says kadawittfeldarchitektur.
Terraces
InnoDom’s staggered setbacks create three roof terraces that can be used in a variety of ways: The fourth-floor “Early Bird” terrace has a soft tartan floor that is perfect for yoga sessions; the third-floor “Green Thumb” terrace is ideal for urban gardening and includes raised beds and planters; the fourth-floor “Sundowner” terrace includes a large pergola and communal high table. Roof areas that do not function as terraces or house facilities are covered with grass and vegetation.
Facade
InnoDom’s facade is a mullion–transom structure made of glazed and partly closed elements with vertical aluminum pilaster strips. Floor-to-ceiling glazed elements can in part be opened to provide additional ventilation; closed facade elements are made of perforated sheet aluminum. The two-story LIKE IT spaces have mullion–transom steel facades. Zip-controlled textile shading is positioned between the pilaster strips and the mullion–transom structure.
On closed sections of the upper floors, “the sheet aluminum between the pilaster strips juts out in steps from the main line of the facade to create an exciting geometric progression,” says kadawittfeldarchitektur.
Composite materials were not used — as a curtain wall, the facade can be dismantled and its materials reused or recycled.
Load-bearing structure
The building’s load-bearing structure incorporates a reinforced steel skeleton, strengthened by a central access core and ceiling slabs. A protruding pillar-free section includes two-story reinforced concrete trussed girders and a protruding reinforced concrete slab above the central entrance area.
Energy
In terms of energy efficiency, kadawittfeldarchitektur focused on the application of a high-grade facade, energy efficient technology with a heat recovery system, and an outer skin with low thermal bridging. InnoDom is connected to a remote heating and cooling network. The ground floor utilizes baseload cooling via underfloor cooling and is heated by underfloor heating. Ceiling-mounted radiant cooling profiles cover peak loads and emphasize the building’s industrial aesthetic. Conditioning of the concrete core’s temperature delivers additional cooling and heating on the upper floors along with ceiling-mounted heating panels.
Gross floor area: 5,420 square meters (58,340 square feet)
Net floor area: 3,620 square meters (38,965 square feet)
Gross building volume: 19,800 cubic meters (699,230 cubic feet)
