Hahn-VW-Tower

The high-rise building with its adjacent pavilions was built in the early 1960s for Hahn, VW and Porsche. The architects accommodated the offices in the 14-story tower, and a workshop, a parking garage, a gas station and sales and exhibition areas in the flatter pavilion buildings. The floor plans, some of which differ per floor, are polygonal and asymmetrical. This results in an expressive form of the overall structure, which takes into account the client's desire for a building with memorability. The building was constructed in cast-in-place reinforced concrete, supplemented with precast concrete parapets that mark the office floors with a horizontal accent on the façade. Externally, the concrete is painted part glaze, part opaque, but left formwork rough in the core of the tower and on the columns, coffered ceilings and walls in the showrooms. Combined with granite floors here, the vehicles on display contrast most elegantly with the raw materials. The large, expressively shaped glass fronts also draw the eye into the exhibition area from outside.