Adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, near Nuremburg, has in the past years been constantly extended by new, architecturally outstanding buildings. The newest addition to the complex is “HalfTime” by COBE architects and CL Map. Under the diamond-shaped precast concrete grid roof, 15 500 m² of space is provided. It features a canteen and conference center for adidas’ personnel and a showroom for brand ambassadors, usually famous athletes.
The sophisticated white roof structure rests on prefabricated exposed concrete walls, pigmented in a dark shade of grey, creating the impression that it hovers a few meters above the ground. Peikko’s bolted connection solutions for precast structures were installed to fasten the precast columns and walls to their foundations as well as in wall-to-wall connections, where one precast wall is placed on top of the other. In both cases HPKM® Column Shoes were cast into the walls and fastened to HPM® Anchor Bolts in the foundation or in the wall below.
In the structural design of the walls, bolted column connections were chosen as the solution to bear high shear loads. The wall panels were designed for thinness, hence column shoes proved the space saving alternative for the structure inside the wall, avoiding collisions in the reinforcement.
Looking at the building from the East or West, you will see a mostly closed, dark structure. From North or South, floor-to-ceiling windows create an open, translucent structure. The individual walls join together as a team to bear the unifying roof, structurally and metaphorically.
