Porsche

Building Type: Corporate Identity
Location: Dortmund, Germany
Architect: Mutabor
Construction: Tray Panels Special Design
Year of construction: 2020
Material: ALUCOBOND® PLUS Silver Metallic
Quantity: 2,500 qm

© brandspacephotography – André Müller

Eight out of ten Porsche buyers are men over fifty. The car manufacturer has developed the “Destination Porsche” brand concept, including corporate architecture, to counteract this state of affairs. The focus is on creating a more inviting exterior and interior architecture which provides a positive brand experience, a template which can be adapted easily to suit different locations and, above all, different target groups. The design studio, Mutabor developed a modular construction system, which allows the floor plans as well as the façades to be configured and scaled flexibly. The ground floor with wrap-around glazing is fully accessible and linked to the outside space – structural and perceived barriers have been eliminated. The upper floors are enveloped in long, narrow pieces of dynamically curved ALUCOBOND®.

The interior can be seen through small display windows, with the slender ALUCOBOND® bands running streamlined across them and emphasizing the aerodynamic shape of the models on display in the showroom. Thanks to new production processes, the ALUCOBOND® aluminium composite bands could be fashioned into three-dimensional, curvilinear elements. The way these lamellas fan out above the entrance means light is able shine out between them and their form echoes the rear view of the Porsche 911. This iconic car served as inspiration for the designers who accentuated the outline of the curved lamella with red LEDs which glow like rear lights in the dark. Could there be a more fitting homage to a Porsche? A central axis leads from the entrance to the interior. The so-called Racing Line is where different product highlights are located. Just as in a small city, side streets are arranged along this axis, with cubic modules set in between. These white or exposed concrete structures feature frameless glazing, and a different topic or model is presented in each module. Using a complementary approach, the information is sometimes in digital, sometimes analogue form. Interested visitors stroll between the exhibition modules before arriving at a centrally located square, the very centre of Porsche City and the meeting point, with a café, lounge and LED info screen. This space is also used to hold events for customers. All other areas – rooms for sales consultations, the fitting lounge, where samples can be examined and details coordinated, the workshop and its waiting lounge – are transparent with frameless glazing giving them an open and affirmative look. They are bright, clean and comfortable, furnished in wood and upholstered furniture in a '50s Jacobsen avant-garde style. The general impression is of bright white spaces and even more air.

It is a reassuring retro utopia with a mid-century feel; technologically, it is speeding along in the fast lane of the digital era with its networked, hybrid communication systems. Is this what women want? The prototype in the Palm Springs desert suggests it is. In the retro light of the Californian sun, this mix of technology and charm is particularly successful. The first new-concept European sales hub can also count on sunshine in the west: It has been located in Dortmund since 2020 and is the blueprint for more than 900 salesrooms around the world.