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Fink+Jocher Architects win 2000 DuPont Benedictus Commercial Award for Audi AG's new Ingolstadt Development Centre

The interior, laminated glass 'walls' of the building are flexible, cost effective and functional, bringing optimal daylight and varying degrees of transparency to individual offices.

Fink+Jocher Architects of Munich, Germany won the 2000 DuPont Benedictus Commercial Award for auto manufacturer Audi AG's new Ingolstadt, Germany-based Development Centre. The laminated glass used in the project was produced by Flachglas AG of Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Audi's Development Centre, completed early in 1999 after just a seven-month construction period, is designed to house up to 50 of the carmaker's subcontractors for limited periods. The building required a high degree of flexibility, due to the fast-changing occupancy of the four-story building. Thanks to interior walls of laminated glass, identical floors can be divided into single, group or open-plan offices for up to 40 supplier firms working at any given time on new car models. Costing 20% less than a standard office design, the entire scheme is a model of highly functional, aesthetic reduction.

Audi's Ingolstadt Development Centre at night

Architect Professor Dietrich Fink, told LGN: "Audi specified optimum daylight conditions and great room depths, which should remain undivided by central access routes. Various volumetric forms were considered and a linear form was finally selected. Between the offices and the gallery spaces are room-height 'walls' of laminated glass 3 m high and 80 m long. The entire façade of the building is of glass, and the overhead glazing is made of laminated glass. As a result, the 14-meter-deep offices get daylight from both sides over their full height."

The DuPont Benedictus jury said: "What's nice is that there is an almost banal, changing light grid inside that becomes the richest part of the building because of the variation that occurs. Some tenants want more light than others and therefore some walls are more transparent and others are less transparent. Thanks to the use of laminated glass you get this checkerboard pattern that changes according to client use and personal choice. So it becomes a kind of tapestry…"