Steel hall Hülden,
Düren

What at first sight appears to be a simple rectangular brick building serves as a sales building and workshop. Inside however there is an organisation reminiscent of a terminal building; at the front there is a two-storey block with sales on the ground floor and admin on the first floor. This part of the building is connected to the goods reception and dispatch in the adjoining warehouse which is the full height of the building.

Project data:

Building Owner: The Hülden company
GFA: 2.500 m²
Dates: 1998
Direct award

Developer’s Prize of the town Düren 1999
Accolade for Exemplary Buildings in North Rhine-Westphalia 2000
Accolade Architecture Prize of the WestHyp Foundation for Exemplary Commercial Buildings 2000
Euro regional Building Prize 2001 from the Aachen Kathy Beys Foundation

Steel beams running in diamond pattern allow the rigid construction of the hall without columns with a 40 meter width of span. A layer of timber beams repeats the geometry of the beams and leads into the visible timber boarding of the roof. In the entrance area the construction peels out of the building as an open canopy, contrasting with the large areas of brick wall.