COBE completes new adidas headquarters in southern germany

danish architecture firm COBE, led by dan stubbergaard, has completed adidas’ new corporate headquarters in herzogenaurach, a city in southern germany. the building was officially opened in 2018, with the first images, taken by rasmus hjortshøj, now revealed to coincide with the sports brand’s 70th anniversary. named ‘HALFTIME’, the multi-purpose structure contains meeting rooms, a conference center, and a showroom where the company’s brand ambassadors can stop by to see the latest designs, collections, and ideas. the 15,500 square meter building also includes a canteen for all employees.

all images by rasmus hjortshøj – COAST

covered in glass, the rhomboid roof structure comprises V-shaped concrete beams. the beams, each 16 meters long and weighing 28 tons, add up to a total length of 3.2 kilometers. to ensure that enough natural illumination enters, a third of the roof consists of skylights. ‘the huge rhomboid roof covers the entire building like a carpet, bringing staff, visitors and brand ambassadors together in the same building and thus enabling more and wider contact,’ says COBE’s founder, dan stubbergaard.

the work environment has been designed to offer creative and informal meeting places and networking opportunities for staff, visitors, and brand ambassadors alike. for example, the building contains 12 workshop rooms, each representing a different sporting venue, and a large event hall with room for 1,500 people, designed as a gym with old-school wall bars. COBE has also designed a chair for the building, the HALF-TIME chair, in collaboration with danish brand HAY.

‘to accommodate the many internal and public functions that HALFTIME includes, we designed a versatile, multi-purpose building that brings as many of the company’s activities and functions as possible together under one roof,’ stubbergaard continues. ‘a key task was to create the right atmosphere to reflect the unique adidas culture. we did this, in part, by matching the different needs with different sports, making room for big ideas and large gestures as well as a touch of humor. in addition to the event hall, which is designed as a gym, you can hold meetings at the bottom of a bright blue swimming pool, in a locker room or in the adidas founder adi dasler’s old workshop, complete with tools.’ see designboom’s previous coverage of the project here.

project info:

location: herzogenaurach, germany
client: adidas pension trust
program: conference center, canteen, showroom and surrounding landscape
area: 15,500 square meters
height: 7.80-10.50 meters
roof footprint: 8,650 square meters
roof dimensions: 168 x 103 meters
standard roof V-beam: 16 meters x 1.4 meters x 2 meters, weighting approx. 28 tons
status: winner of international architecture competition in 2014, completed in 2018
competition team: COBE, CLMAP, knippers helbig, transsolar, COBE berlin
design and execution team: ARGE COBE & CLMAP (lead consultant), knippers helbig, fact, bartenbach, soda, PMI, HMP
wayfinding and signage: COBE & EIGA
interior design: COBE
the halftime chair: COBE and HAY