Full Speed ahead!by Jola Horschig | 12.05.2011

medac - office, lab and logistics building

medac Gesellschaft für klinische Spezialpräparate mbH was able to more than double their turnover as well as their number of employees during the past eight years. In order to continue this rapid development, the pharmaceutical company was looking for ways to expand spatially. The first idea was to erect a new office, lab and logistics building at the outskirts of Wedel, where the company’s headquarters is located. Since this did not work, medac was forced to look somewhere else and eventually found a place in the hinterland of Hamburg, the Tornesch Business Park. Here, the pharmaceutical manufacturer purchased a strategically well-situated, nearly 32.500 m² large premises and assigned Architekten PSP, demonstrating their preference for demanding architecture. This Hamburg-based architectural bureau had already designed an administration building in 2007 and created a solitaire building with strict geometry within the downtown of Wedel.

Rather buttoned down from the Outside

While the headquarters in Wedel is an open and transparent building due to its large window fronts, the office, lab and logistics building in Tornesch, however, presents itself rather buttoned down from the outside. This is due to the fact that windows are rather cumbersome for a warehouse, and daylight might harm goods. The new building’s appeal is its dynamic design. The shape and the vertical window ribbons with slant endings is something that brings a cargo ship to people’s minds, anchoring in Hamburg’s Northwest. The part towards the South is where the crew works, the part towards the North houses the goods.

The structure consists of one underground and five aboveground levels; it’s 20 meters high and houses a representative entrée, the goods reception and issuing department, office rooms as well as research and laboratory rooms. The single-story 14 meters high bilge houses an automatic small parts storage, a high-bay warehouse, a cold storage room and the consignment department inside the ship’s bow towards the North.

Brightly lit and Light-flooded inside

As close-lipped as the cargo ship appears from the outside: the structure inside is an open one, brightly lit and light-flooded. This part of the building is the business card of the office, lab and logistics building, hence, PSP architects have designed it in a transparent manner and used high-quality materials. Hallways serve as communication centers, glass supports the creative get-together. The three upper floors are grouped around two inner courtyards, lighting the inner part of the building with daylight and serving as a place of relaxation for the medac employees.

Also the consignment department, where shipments are put together manually per individual order, is less close-lipped. Glazed doors and wall breaks, windows arranged towards the North, and large skylights guarantee brightness and transparency.

The compact façade areas of the office, lab and logistics building have been faced with an insulated, rear ventilated metal façade. It shines in the sunlight, the windows mirror clouds and sky – like a ship, having hoisted its anchors and heading for the next turnover growth with full speed ahead. Ahoy!