Technology & Start-up Centre, Straubing (DE)

Young companies need an environment that allows them to focus on building their business. The Technology and Start-up Centre, TGZ for short, at Hafen Straubing-Sand offers a broad and flexible portfolio of premises for start-ups and young companies: from 25 m² offices and larger units to S1 standard laboratory space and extra-high workshops. Added to this are a variety of services such as the use of conference and meeting rooms. This concept is so popular that the operator, the Zweckverband Hafen Straubing-Sand, has decided to expand the TGZ. We won the tendering procedure with a sustainable timber frame construction that complements the existing and new buildings to create a multifunctional campus.

Architecture and Concept
An elongated block extends the BioCubator building in the north and complements the established structures of the TGZ to form a campus. An intimate green inner courtyard strengthens the exchange within the building and offers users an attractive view. The office wing of the new building is directly connected to the existing building. The greater room height of the adjoining laboratories creates a step in the building’s height. Exactly at this point, a two-storey transparent bridge connects the new building with the business incubator and creates a coherent circuit.
A respectful intervention in the existing building transforms two large rental spaces of the incubator into a new conference area with a foyer.

Function and Organisation
The access zones are located as arcades on both sides of the façade and create attractive corridor zones that facilitate communication between the different user groups. The offices can be used flexibly and allow for a variety of typologies. The arcades in front of the building invite people to take a breath of fresh air or to exchange ideas with colleagues outside.

Construction and Material
The buildings are designed as timber skeleton structures with visible supports and beams in glulam. The gable roof, which is open at the top, also makes this construction method visible on the inside. Three massive reinforced concrete cores serve as bracing of the new building. The construction as a timber skeleton structure allows for great flexibility, so that the new buildings will also meet the requirements in the decades to come. In the interior, the prefabricated surfaces are already finished to a high standard in the “shell” and remain visible. Already recognisable as a timber construction from the outside, the new building has a vertically structured, rear-ventilated timber façade. The front arcades and the connecting bridge are covered with a wire net, which also serves as a climbing aid for the greenery on the façade.

Client: Zweckverband Hafen Straubing-Sand
Location: D-94315 Straubing, Europaring 4
Architecture: Dietrich | Untertrifaller
Project Management: Jacqueline Horn, Andreas Reiser
Competition: VGV 2022
Construction: 2023-2024
Area: ca. 5.500 m²
Capacity: Offices, laboratories , storage

Partners
Statics: Fritsche and Partner, Deggendorf / building physics: BER Energieberatung, Regensburg / building services: BER TGA, Regensburg / electrics: Glasmann, Pfaffenhofen / acoustics: Hentschel Consult, Freising / fire protection: Renninger, Eßfeld / landscape: lab landschaftsarchitektur brenner, Landshut / laboratories: WUP Ingenieure, Dresden /// Visualisierung: Dietrich | Untertrifaller