Schüco Welcome Forum
In the Welcome Forum Showroom at their headquarters Schüco now offers a comprehensive insight into its world of products, machines, and the history and workings of the company. Every typology of Schüco products are represented in the Showroom, from entrance doors to folding-sliding doors, windows to facades, and the free-form Grid2Shell. Each exhibit is designed individually to highlight the benefits and advantages of each product. The details and subtle shifts in materiality are particularly cared for to balance the minimal expression of Schüco products and the complexity of the technology needed to achieve such elegance.
Client: Schüco International KG
Partner: DART
Read more after the images…
Overall View of the Showroom © Schüco International KG
Exterior Door Handle
Through the Sliding Doors © Schüco International KG
Interior Door Handle
Between the Areas © Schüco International KG
AF UDC 80 piece of a Tower Facade © Schüco International KG
Importance of Materials and Textures in the AF UDC 80
Security and Health in One View © Schüco International KG
Grid2Shell from the inside
During our product development process Schüco came to us with the very compelling challenge to design the exhibits in their new Welcome Forum Showroom. Not only would this help us with the products that we are working to improve and develop into their products of the future, but we would also learn a great deal about their current product line that we were not (yet) concerned with. Our background in façade design and development meant that it was straight forward for us to consider immediately the combination and interweaving of aesthetics and details necessary in the assignment.
Many of the smaller exhibits needed to be simple, and only carefully proportioned and detailed. Others, such as the 3 large façade system exhibits (2 of the AF UDC 80 system and 1 of the Säelzer Ss1es system) are considered as pieces of larger possible buildings. This in itself became a fun study into possible futures. With the help of the Schüco team we introduced new facade materials like Yaki Sugi (charred) wood supplied by Zwarthout and large format tiles from Laminam, and borrowed a subtle midnight blue from the car industry, but not common in buildings. Along the way we helped DART Design Gruppe with the integration of the exhibits into the best spatial configuration and clear story line for the entire space.
This work piques our interest in the deeper understanding of the entire execution of architectural products, from the basic production and fabrication, to the branding and marketing, and the interconnected nature of the entire process. We consider our work in the Showroom, the subsequent BAU designs, and continued product development as part of a steady refocus for Schüco as a design-focused company.