The Dreher Bau showroom, commissioned by Ferranti Schnell and completed in 2024 in Germany, was conceived as a combined exhibition, operational, and demonstrative space for a construction company with deep material expertise. The project places a clear emphasis on the dialogue between structural timber and exposed concrete, deploying a spatial strategy that combines a primary envelope with an internally articulated volume.
The external form is a large timber structure, rooted in the archetype of rural buildings typical of the region. Sloped roofs and a disciplined arrangement of openings produce a simple, rigorous architectural language that engages the surrounding landscape. In winter, the frosted environment amplifies both the material presence and the monolithic character of the timber envelope.
Within this outer timber shell, an exposed concrete volume is inserted, conceived as an autonomous entity in dialogue with the outer hull. On the ground floor, the exhibition area is designed to highlight materials, construction details, and structural systems under carefully controlled lateral daylight. The contrast between the concrete’s textural depth and the tactile warmth of the timber skin creates a layered perceptual experience.
The first floor accommodates the office spaces, arranged in visual continuity with the exhibition volume and linked through a system of stairs and ramps that suggest a promenade architecturale. This circulation sequence accentuates shifts in perspective, the interplay of solid and void, and the evolving relationships between material surfaces.
Above, a secondary exhibition area and a small meeting room are set beneath a generous skylight. Here, the archetypal form re-emerges as a spatial object: a room whose silhouette echoes domestic proportion, strategically embedded within a workplace and exhibition context.
The photographic narrative treats the building not as a static artifact but as a spatial organism. The images emphasize pure lines, the co-presence of materials, and the integration with the rural setting, conveying an architectural experience where function, structure, and material logic are inseparable.
