From warehouse to office
The new offices for technical distributor Haberkorn have won a special award for “Clever Construction with Wood”. Instead of building a new structure on a greenfield site, NONA Architektinnen redensified an old warehouse using timber.
Haberkorn is essentially the “Everything Store” for the construction industry. The company is headquartered in the Austrian district of Wolfurt and supplies over 20,000 technical products ranging from crane accessories and machine components to wood connectors, which are dispatched to Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Situated in the state of Vorarlberg, Haberkorn was established in 1932 as a small ropery in Bregenz. Today, it employs about 2,500 people around the world, with annual turnover totalling 790 million euros.
When the company’s logistics capacities doubled at the end of 2019, their offices needed to be expanded to accommodate around 100 extra people at the Wolfurt site. An architectural competition invited creative and sustainable ideas for the project. The brief here was to adapt and re-use an existing warehouse in order to avoid any additional ground sealing.
A space within a space
The goal was to bring office capacities in line with the rest of the business. At the outset, the client explored the following question: Is it possible to achieve the required space within the existing building, or is an extension to the existing building unavoidable? Instead of building a whole new storey, they chose a compact solution that inserted a new space inside the existing one. Ultimately, adding a new upper floor along the length of the warehouse offered considerable potential that could be exploited to save resources.
The design for this potential redensification was provided by NONA Architektinnen. Anja Innauer and Nora Heinzle, who set up their Dornbirn-based architecture office in 2005, presented a dual-level timber construction inspired by shelving systems. Inserted inside the existing warehouse, this new structure is slightly smaller and therefore leaves a certain amount of free space towards the glazing at the front. As a result, smaller spaces with double ceiling height create a sense of spaciousness and stimulating sightlines.
Inspired by high-bay warehouse
The open timber structure features a glulam column grid pattern with a centre-to-centre distance of 150 cm and a depth of 40 cm. Its design was inspired by the high-bay warehouses used by Haberkorn, which focuses on logistics as its core business. This inserted construction creates varied zoning inside the existing building, without overly restricting the feeling of openness.
The natural, compact timber construction serves as a filter for the surrounding areas and its honest materiality creates a comfortable atmosphere for working.
Anja Innauer and Nora Heinzle, architects
The offices created in this project, whose general planning was the responsibility of Bischof & Zündel, provide a variety of workplaces ranging from open-plan office to individual room. Employee well-being benefits from spacious community areas with high-quality ambience. “The natural, compact timber construction serves as a filter for the surrounding areas and its honest materiality creates a comfortable atmosphere for working,” the architects observe.
Looking good for humans and nature
The glazing at one end of the building allows sweeping views of Ried nature reserve. In earlier times, such a panorama would have been enjoyed by the upper echelons of management, but these days new work principles call for efforts to increase well-being among the whole workforce.
This is precisely why the largest recreation room is located here – so the staff can chat to each other and enjoy a well-deserved break. “The decision was taken deliberately in the interests of social sustainability to help everyone, as a very important contribution towards a well-functioning concept,” explain the NONA architects.
The use of high-quality, regional materials protects nature and the environment, and helps achieve the greatest possible sustainability.
Anja Innauer and Nora Heinzle, architects
Last but not least, redensification in an existing building protects against land consumption, which continues unabated in Austria and remains one of the greatest ecological problems of our time. Besides intensifying the climate crisis, it also contributes towards the loss of biodiversity.
Around the world 37 times
Deliberately choosing regional wood as a renewable construction material also saves finite resources and locks in carbon over the long term. The architects add: “The use of high-quality, regional materials protects nature and the environment, and helps achieve the greatest possible sustainability.”
According to Haberkorn, the new office wing locks up approx. 175 tonnes of CO2 in the wood used for construction over the long term. This equals the emissions produced by 1.59 million kilometres travelled in a car, with 110 g CO2 per kilometre. Or in other words: the emissions saved in this way are equivalent to driving around the world 37 times. And so in 2023 this office expansion quite deservedly won the Vorarlberg Timber Construction Award in the category “Clever Construction”, followed by the Central Association of Austrian Architects Award (ZV-Bauherren:innenpreis) in 2024.
Text: Gertraud Gerst
Translation: Rosemary Bridger-Lippe
Photos: David Schreyer