One hundred years ago, the “Vereinigte Spezialmöbelfabriken“ (VS) was founded in Tauberbischofsheim as a producer of school furniture. In the course of time the range was extended to include office furniture and office furnishing systems.

The client decided to have a new building which could accommodate the various offices scattered over the site. Besides providing workplaces for the hundred employees, the building should have display areas and facilities offering an adequate environment for the presentation of furniture to customers, as well as conference and meeting rooms, and a new staff restaurant.

The new building extends over an existing fire pond like a bridge. The northern end of the building is smooth and flat, assuming the function of a `back´, addressing the park and the large-scale halls. To the south the building has several terraces which relate to the “smaller“ houses and gardens of the adjacent residential areas. A white surface, developed as part of the formal method, forms the facade, which was treated in such a way that the functional order - the grid of the offices - is concealed, creating overall a particular aesthetic. The result is an autonomous image, which appears to develop irrespective of the spacial and functional value.

The building’s open character supports internal communication. The client wanted the possibility for the employees to have direct access to the central exhibition space in order to promote an intensive confrontation with the products and to foster corporate identification. The exhibition is from significant importance for VS, as the company exclusively processes through direct distribution.

The exhibition hall has a size of around 32,000 sq.ft. and occupies two floors. The design is characterized through formal retention and evokes the image of a workshop. This allows the precisely elaborated furniture to be moved into the foreground and to freely unfold.
the site to provide an appropriate gateway to the factory which is not subordinate to its fragmented pattern.