Analog, hybrid, digital – the new heart of the Schüco Campus
Excellence can only be achieved through meticulous preparation. And we’re delighted to announce we’ve reached the opening stage! The Schüco Welcome Forum in Bielefeld is an exciting and innovative addition to the Schüco campus. For the experts in intelligent building facades – this development represents the exciting expansion of the company’s largest showroom in the world. And the new “heart of the campus” beats entirely for the guest experience.
From now on, what belongs together will come together. Here, on an area of approximately 4,650 square meters, interested parties from the fields of architecture, construction, fabrication, the press, and investment will experience the Welcome Forum as a first point of contact. As well as a collaborative information platform during their visit to the Schüco Campus. The unusual and sophisticated system of rooms and products, combined with our multidimensional customer dialogue, has much more to offer than the traditional visitor center.
In collaboration with one fine day (architects), the Schüco design team and other close partners, we have created a coherent and accessible storyline for holistic branded experiences. Through this, the company and the Schüco brand can be presented (within the space) experienced live and is fully customizable. Our multi-media concept can be adapted to a diverse range of target groups and differing time schedules, ensuring a remarkable experience for guests.
Unconventional, but still grounded, one fine day’s architectural concept translated this into a delicate balance of apparent opposites, which merge seamlessly into the new visitor center – starting with the successful conversion of two former warehouses to a new building, the Welcome Forum:
“Our vision at the beginning of the design phase was to add new sections to the existing building and to throw a "new dress" over its entirety. This is how the basic concept, with the image of a pleated skirt, emerged. The concave-cambered facade, the "pleating", has a fine, elegant appearance, while the underlying base is high-quality and robust. (...) Although the Welcome Forum is smaller than its neighboring buildings, it has become the focal point of the campus with its solid black articulated form. Large openings create visual axes, allowing new insights and anchoring the building in the surrounding space. Depending on the perspective, observers will be left with differing impressions of the Welcome Forum. Capturing the light at a particular angle can give the facade an almost curtain-like effect.”
Prominently placed 3D letters and a large-scale graphic, integrated into the facade, are an important part of our signage, giving future visitors a clear orientation and a fitting welcome from the very beginning of their journey.
The spacious foyer, at the core of the building, provides visitors with a full overview of the Welcome Forum's functions — opening up from here, in a 360° rotation, there is a two-part exhibition area with the products showroom and the fabrication showroom, the newsroom, as well as an inviting café and lounge area. The organically modern design language, complemented by classic high-quality materials (oak veneer, terrazzo flooring) is enhanced by intelligently integrated high-end technology, notably our interactive and easy-to-navigate welcome screens.
The fabrication showroom is impressive even from the outside. A glance through the show window reveals a machinery hall simultaneously transformed into an exhibition space and a transparent factory. This is the showcase for Schüco's entire machine park "(...) with the full spectrum of modern production technology – from small machines such as the AF 210 to complete production plants such as the AS 100.” (Andreas Darlath, Schüco) Suspended LED modules stream impressive performance data about the respective machines via news ticker, initiating conversation and sparking fascination for the Schüco production process from the inside and out.
In three atmospherically dense sections, we have made the current Schüco product portfolio and the Schüco focus topics HEALTH, SECURITY and SMART tangible – bringing them to life in the product showroom. Digital and analog communication levels, such as floor-to-ceiling LED surfaces and carefully selected theme-specific materials, are used to clearly convey the content of intelligent, secure and healthy construction. The centrally located multi-functional area, equipped with flexible seating and presentation elements, creates a visible and practical connecting level, opening the space up for immersive experiences. This can also be comfortably used for events and presentations on a larger scale.
The past and the future come together effortlessly in the newsroom – here visitors have the opportunity to delve even deeper into the heart of the Schüco brand, while exploring current Schüco campaigns, news and products – completely intuitively, independently and from their own perspective. Large-format touch screens in an adjoining area can be individually decoupled and used. Here the content is very much guided by and focused on the guest's personal interest. A real eye-catcher with an additional feature: The Schüco AR History Bus presents the historic Schüco company cars and becomes a unique infotainment source, even without any major automotive know-how. Using a smartphone and an augmented reality app, the extensive Schüco company history can be playfully displayed on its surface and experienced up close and personal.
As an exhibition hall and social interface, the Welcome Forum offers interested guests as well as Schüco employees a spacious, inviting and contemporary space for communication, interaction and relaxation on the Schüco Campus – analog, hybrid and digital.
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- Project
- schüco / welcome forum
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- Location
- bielefeld
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- cATEGORy
- exhibition
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- PARTNER ARCHITEcTURe
- ONE FINE DAy architekten
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- phOTOGRAphy
- Roland Borgmann Fotografie