A small family-owned enterprise built a unique architecturally prominent and ambient industrial and administrative building in the Czech town of Hulin.
Pilana Karbid is manufacturer of cutting tools with over 80 years’ history. Due to company growth, it was decided to build a new manufacture workshop and office building, corresponding to the cozy family business spirit.
The client’s main desire was to create the comfortable atmosphere for each of the 45 employees and to maintain family values in the team, thus it was decided to invest into creation of better working conditions. Convenient circulation in the building and ensuring comfortable distance between people became the key design idea.
The rational combination of the bearing steel frame in the production part and the reinforced concrete frame in the office part allowed achieving column-free space in the workshop and stylish interior with visible concrete structure in the administrative building.
The facade follows the company’s corporate colors – gray and blue, which successfully stresses the link between the brand and the real estate object. Unique facade solutions, such as perforated design profiles, rounded corners of the building, and the Ruukki Forma system combining sandwich panels and rainscreen ventilated facades, were used in the project.
The walls of th upper office floors are made of sandwich panels and additionally clad with Ruukki perforated design profiles. Such a solution makes the facade integral and, at the same time, lets light inside the building, as well as creates shading for increase of comfort at the workplaces near the windows.
A peculiarity of the company production process is the need for maintaining permanent ambient temperature of 24°С inside the building all year round. The building envelope is performed of Ruukki energy-saving sandwich panels to minimize heat losses. The rounded corners made of radial sandwich panels and designer profiles, give special slender appearance to the building.
The parts of the complex are linked so as to allow office employees to see the production processes, and the workshop employees – to see their colleagues and visitors in the administrative part. The three-level building is designed so as to enable easy addition of an extra floor.
Comfortable lighting for the workplaces and reduction of energy consumption are provided by means of north-facing skylights in the roof of the production part.
The roofed atrium is an important circulation element inside the office part. Galleries for employee meetings and access to the landscaped roof giving excellent views of the surrounding hills, are created in it.
Light and spacious interiors are also performed in the corporate colors of the company, using textures of natural materials.
For the special value-based approach in new construction of the industrial building, the project architects won a prestigious award in the Czech Construction for Architecture 2020 competition.
