Faber Headquarters

The new headquarters of Faber Industrie are located at a boundary between an industrial area and farmland, and hence belong to both the industrial and the natural landscape. The building is designed to “bring the two landscapes inside” and it consists of two shifted longitudinal volumes linked by an entrance hall. The notion of “double” permeates the whole design process. It is mirrored in the section, that is two “S” shapes, having the corridor/office plan inverted on the two levels: one totally blind side and one totally open side are overlapped, giving way to radically shifting open/closed fronts. The building is covered in a ventilated “skin” made of two materials, i.e. black concrete and black glass. The prefabricated concrete walls and the glazed front cells alike are horizontal. All elements are connected with the same method, i.e. 20 millimetres wide open joints. This gap element governs all installations of the front parts, groundline and skyline, horizontal and vertical separations, change in materials, and corner solutions. The black skin of Faber building is a product of the designers’ research on abstraction. Although the building is about 100 metres long, it looks “small” as compared to other huge industrial plants.