Behles & Jochimsen designs German university building to be "as flexible as possible"

German architecture studio Behles & Jochimsen has completed the Kreativinstitut OWL, a shared, flexible university facility for science, business and music.

Located at the entrance to the city of Detmold, the facility was designed for three different institutions: the OWL University of Applied Sciences, Detmold University of Music and Paderborn University.

Reflecting its desire to be a space of creative exchange, Behles & Jochimsen looked to design a building that would be "as flexible as possible", with easily divisible and convertible timber-framed spaces flanked by two concrete cores.

"At the start of the design process, we asked ourselves what a 'creative institute' could possibly be," partner Jasper Jochimsen and managing partner Sebastian Nordmeyer told Dezeen.

"We decided that it should be as flexible as possible in order to allow for easy adaptation to future requirements," they added.

"The project also had to be state-of-the-art, especially with regard to sustainability. This resulted in our first timber building."

At either end of the building, its two concrete cores are expressed externally with curved edges, which Behles & Jochimsen introduced to symbolise that "the research conducted there can change direction."

Within these curved cores are the building's circulation and meeting rooms, while their reinforced concrete structure supports the largely timber structure of the flexible workspaces between.

On the ground floor, a completely open area sits alongside an anechoic chamber for acoustic testing, while on the floors above, a central corridor divides two strips of smaller workspaces, separated by temporary partition walls.

"The floor plan offers a maximum of freely divisible and easily convertible space between two external cores," Jochimsen and Nordmeyer said.

"On the ground floor, there is an open space for informal exchanges. The upper floors house offices, laboratories and studios," they added.

Aiding the building's adaptability are its composite timber-concrete floor plates, which, as well as housing acoustic insulation and lighting, contain a 1.25-metre grid of installation ducts that allow access to electrical points from almost any location.

Externally, KreativInstitut OWL is clad with vertically laid pre-greyed timber planks laid in strips of alternating directions and separated by narrow metal bands.

The two long sides of the building feature large strips of ribbon windows framed in silver metal and flanked by balconies at either side, contrasted by patterns of smaller windows on the centre's shorter ends.

Previous projects by Behles & Jochimsen include a series of 35 pastel-coloured apartment blocks in Nuremberg opposite the former Nazi party rally grounds, and the extension of the Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce and Industry offices.

The photography is by Marcus Bredt.

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