MVRDV is further embracing its trademark pixel style with a new commission in the German city of Esslingen: dubbed "Crystal Rock", the design for a new 6,500-sqm, 12-story mixed-use office development sports a part-QR-code-covered/part-reflective facade and a giant Minecraft-style hole that's been punched through the building's center.
From MVRDV: "The buildings’ volume is pushed inwards to create a fragmented facade, an ‘Esslinger grotto’ that reflects its actual topography and forms an open public walkway right through the center, marking the location of the central district. On upper levels, offices are located and envisioned as light, attractive and flexible spaces that are customizable for different users to create combinations of work and life. On the ground level, the crystal rock facade opens up to the public square in front connecting the city to the building and provides public amenities including a café, restaurant and meeting areas."
"The Milestone’s partly mirrored-transparent facade integrates technology and sustainability with the use of fritted glass to reduce overheating, PV cells to store and generate energy, and finally, QR codes which carry information about the city in a pixelated map spread across the building making it both visible and readable. The three-dimensional map is located on the lower part of the building extends to a height of 40 meters, and with stairs and terraces, it forms a publicly accessible core that tenants and visitors can walk up to take in views of the vineyards and surrounding hills. All of these sustainability features in the facade all the potential for the building to become partly self-sufficient in future."
"The transparency of the facade allows an interaction between inside and out, whilst reflecting the daily interactions in the square thus turning the front of the building into a new meeting point. In contrast, at night, the building becomes illuminated through its facade and is a new beacon for Esslingen. For train travelers, the current beacon being a large chimney of a former knife factory with the abbreviation of the factory name on its side, spelling the word DICK, which means ‘big’ in German."
Construction is expected to start in 2020.
Project Details:
Location: Esslingen, Germany
Year: 2016+
Client: RVI, Germany
Size and Program: 6,500m² Mixed-use building with offices, bar, restaurant
Budget: Undisclosed
Design: MVRDV – Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries
Design Team: Winy Maas, Markus Nagler, Tobias Tonch, Christine Sohar, Alessio Palmieri, Cheng Cai and Bartosz Kobylakiewicz
Visualization: Antonio Luca Coco, Kirill Emelianov, Luca Piattelli, Pavlos Ventouris
Images: MVRDV
8 Comments
these BIG 2 tone graphic diagrams are so wack..Like the complexity of a project can or even should be condensed into such a dumb one liner. Is the intent to communicate process or justify form (neither which matter in the end)? It's completely obvious that good design was factored out of the equation entirely.
what u talking bout m8? this design is nice, and you don't need a diagram to understand it at all. the question is can they execute it?
really??? A giant glass corporate looking box for Esslingen? Very weak design, ruins the fabric of the town.
which corporation has boxes that look like this?
https://www.dezeen.com/tag/pixelated-architecture/
I like the hole, it should only be bigger, like the size of the entire building...at least.
+++Brilliant
spelling the word DICK, which means ‘big’ in German."
DICK means thick or fat
it refers to width
big is referring to volume
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.