German silicones firm Wacker Chemie recently opened its new corporate headquarters in Munich yesterday at a ceremony with over 100 invited guests. The new roughly 18,000 sq m building in Munich’s Werksviertel District was designed by Danish architecture firm C.F. Møller with the latest in sustainable building technology. The office concept offers an ultramodern flexible working environment for around 600 employees on 5 floors. With Wacker House, the company is moving its Munich headquarters from Neuperlach to the Werksviertel District.
“Wacker belongs just as much to Munich as the mountains do to Bavaria. We’ve had our corporate headquarters here for more than 100 years. During this period, Wacker has always been able to reinvent itself,” said Christian Hartel, President/CEO of Wacker at the opening ceremony.
Clemens Baumgärtner, in charge of Labor and Economic Affairs for the City of Munich, stated, “Wacker and Munich are a really strong team. The company has a tradition going back more than 100 years in this city. By moving to Munich’s Werksviertel District, Wacker has chosen one of the city’s most exciting quarters. At the same time, the area will be further enhanced by Wacker House.”
Wacker House extends across five floors where the individual departments will each have their own home base. Inside, everything is geared toward flexible and communicative work. There are open spaces, think tanks, work lounges, conventional project areas and flexible individual offices, so that every work activity finds the perfect setting.
The building’s facade has a transparent and curved lattice structure. The glass facade lets daylight into most of the interior of the building, which is heated using locally produced district heating. Triple-glazed windows and thermally insulated walls guarantee substantial energy savings. What’s more, attention was paid to the economical use of materials, for example by using prefabricated concrete panels. Rainwater retention basins were created to irrigate green areas and plants on the landscaped terraces.
Wacker House in Munich’s Werksviertel District, near to Munich East station, was built by real estate company Patrizia, utilising Wacker products, particularly silicones and polymers. What’s more, the lobby includes a specially designed reception desk featuring polished polysilicon in a silicon resin matrix.