Sky Office Vodafone

After a good two years of construction, Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile communications groups, has moved into a new German headquarters in Düsseldorf. The last employees moved in at the end of March. The new Vodafone Campus office complex, which comprises almost 90,000 square meters of floor space above ground, is defined by three elongated buildings and a 19-storey elliptical high-rise, which also opens as the main entrance. The centre of the campus complex is a triangular square that extends far between the high-rise and the six- to nine-storey peripheral buildings. Inside, the approximately 5,000 Vodafone employees can expect an innovative workplace concept - a completely new working world. The focus is on communication, creativity and plenty of freedom for the employees who work in the so-called "open space". A comprehensive range of services also supports employees in reconciling family and career. These include, for example, a nursery, a fitness studio, a health centre and a wide range of gastronomic facilities.

Polished elegance in a classic terrazzo look
Visitors have access to the new campus through the representative foyer of the striking 75-metre-high high-rise building. The entrance area is characterised by a clear, spacious architecture. Floor-to-ceiling glass surfaces provide a lot of transparency and openness. Huge video walls with fast image sequences become an emotional eye-catcher. The calming counterpoint is the high-quality, finely ground and almost jointless floor design in classic terrazzo look. It sets creative accents and emphatically underlines the generous spatial effect. This effect is achieved by a modern, jointless material, which optimally fulfils the aesthetic and technical requirements: ARDEX PANDOMO TerrazzoPlus. This homogeneous top floor, with its multiform mi-neral ornamental grains and bonded with quick cement, was specially developed as a high-quality alternative to the classic Terrazzo floor. Natural and noble in its effect, yet extremely hard-wearing and quick to work with. Particularly attractive are the diverse, individual design types of this material, which keeps all possibilities of architectural conception open.

For the Vodafone Campus, the planners used a light anthracite colour for the floor areas in the entrance area of the high-rise building, the surrounding corridors and the adjoining Vodafone shop. This gives the passage a feeling of width and elegance on a total of 600 square metres. Visual tension is provided by the interspersed mineral ornamental grain in different grain sizes and colours, which were individually mixed exactly according to the planning specifications. This resulted in absolutely homogeneous, but also lively floor surfaces. Genuine unique pieces, completely in the tradition of centuries-old classic terrazzo floors. Even particularly demanding surfaces, such as the free-swinging staircase to the basement, were covered step by step with the same look.

Fast and resilient
In addition to the design aspects equally important in the highly frequented entrance area were the durability of the floor and the speed of the material during installation. In view of the high pace of work on this construction site, only very short time windows were available for laying the floor covering in sections. With the ARDEX PANDOMO TerrazzoPlus, which is very pressure-resistant and wear-resistant, an exceptionally resilient and at the same time fast, economical solution was found. Already on the 2nd day after installation, the respective surfaces were ready for final sanding and polishing. In a short period of time, the result was a spacious, jointless, monolithic floor area in field sizes of around 70 square meters. Timelessly beautiful with a completely individual face and individual appearance.

HPP Hentrich-Petschnigg&Partner GmbH + Co.KG

Freese Fußbodentechnik GmbH
www.gtf-freese.de

Vodafone GmbH