“Il Tronco” office building

Pforzheim, in Baden-Württemberg, is a town with a population of 120,000 situated on the northern edge of the Black Forest. The management block rises in the Schulbergstrasse area, on a triangular site near the station, in an open position next to a major road intersection. The 360° visibility from and towards the building prompted a plastic modelling of it in the round, inspired by the naturalistic fascination of a sectioned tree trunk. That image is evoked by the organic deformation impressed on the conventional perpendicularity of a typical square-grid reinforced concrete structural frame. A red stone base houses basement parking and resolves the ground attachment by adhering perfectly to the perimeter of the urban landed registry site. Above it, the construction rises to seven storeys on a tricky plan which changes slightly at each level, allowing a flexible and optimal organisation of the office space around an inner core of distribution and vertical services. On the outside, the slim cement cage is clad in brick to outline the uniform grid of broad mirrored glazings.