Located at the busiest entrance to Graz, Austria, this real estate company’s headquarters establishes a clear and open landmark in the otherwise flat transitional area. The design aims to create a distinct identity for this young company by blending context, formality, and consistency across the entire façade, reflecting the evolution of their brand in a new era.
The concept, named CUBEND, introduces a “bending” element to a unified “cube” design language symbolizing integrity and perseverance. This approach fully transforms the company’s values into a cohesive architectural expression. The building’s surface vividly demonstrates the interaction between people and space, addressing diverse needs unlike the surrounding enclosed industrial buildings.
The building is a seven-story cube divided by a curved atrium, featuring a floating concrete structure and a glass core. The white concrete outer grid integrates an automatic shading system that dynamically adjusts the building’s appearance based on sunlight and user activity.
△ General layout plan
The second façade element features a porch-like space serving as a transitional zone between indoors and outdoors, providing shaded areas during summer months.
The third layer of the façade is transparent, allowing natural light to flood the dispersed office spaces arranged around the slender atrium. This multi-layered system offers diverse structural and functional elements, addressing the building’s energy efficiency.
One of the key spatial planning challenges was to accommodate various functions—including lobbies, client areas with apartment models, meeting rooms, open workspaces, creative zones, and social spaces for events and lectures—within a compact 2,465 square meter area spread over seven floors. The layout optimizes a rectangular grid centered around the atrium, facilitating vertical connectivity across all levels.
The building’s core houses stairs, elevators, and all essential equipment, which extend outward through a mesh ceiling into the office spaces. This innovative ceiling system was customized to fulfill spatial, aesthetic, and acoustic requirements. To foster an inspiring and healthy workplace, biophilic design principles are integrated both indoors and outdoors, featuring plants, rooftop terraces, balconies, and landscaped front yards that harmonize the physical, virtual, and social aspects of work.
Design Drawings
△ First floor plan
△ Third floor plan
△ Fourth floor plan
△ Sixth floor plan
△ Section diagram
Project Information
Project Type: Office Building
Location: Graz, Austria
Architectural Firm: INNOCAD
Area: 2,465 m²
Year: 2017
Photographer: Paul Ott
Project Team: Patrick Handler, Jörg Kindermann, Martin Lesjak, Elisabeth Krammer, Dominik Gladik
Client: C&P Immobilien AG
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