Architecture for representative retail and businesses
Verkauf & Repräsentation: Architektur für Einzelhandel und Gewerbe
Our commercial architecture has two main focal points: It is meant to represent, for example in retail. And for businesses, it helps promote a clear brand image. When we plan, design or build nationally and internationally, the colour or logo of a company is not the starting point for us as architects. OOW’s approach is different: We translate the philosophy of a company, i.e., everything it represents, into refined and exclusive design.
Referenzprojekte für Verkauf & Repräsentation
we design architecture
OOW is an award-winning Berlin practice designing and delivering buildings and interiors for commercial and housing—focused, bold, assured.
Making the aspiration clear — with architecture for sales and representation
Our approach is exemplified in Volkswagen’s Autostadt. Noble natural components such as leather and woods come together in a high-quality automobile. Similarly, our architecture combines different materials and draws clear lines. Through the consistent contrast of black and white (seen, for example, on the façade of the Social Sphere multimedia exhibition), this corporate architecture conveys clarity and simplicity. With simple means, we create a clear focus and direct the visitors’ gaze: in this case to the stars in the delivery centre, the new cars of the VW brand family.
Not least through its extremely refined details, the architectural design reflects the company's commitment to quality. Anyone who experiences such exclusive and high-quality spatial design senses it subconsciously: the architecture and the formal language stand for the aspiration of one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world.
"What is the essential core of a company? We work out the philosophy of each client in detail and take it as the launch pad for our work. On this basis we develop refined and exclusive architectural design. It makes the entrepreneurial core visible to every visitor, client and member of staff."
Sebastian Blancke, Architect BDA, Founder of OOW
Architecture from Berlin for trade fairs, cinemas, hotels and museums
From Berlin, we design and build high-quality and exclusive architecture for commercial clients nationally and worldwide: be it the design of trade fair booths and the stage for World of Agencies at DMEXCO, the conceptual design of a futuristic 360-degree cinema complete with a hotel and marina on an artificial island off Dubai, or the design for the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, where we transposed the traditional brick construction method into modernity.
Often it is not only the architecture that is spectacular and striking, but also the location itself where we are invited to design, plan or create – like the Alexanderhaus in the middle of Berlin’s most famous square. Here we show both: how to respect the history of the listed building – and how commercial tenants can better present their business to the public in this hot spot of Berlin’s retail sector.
Flexible architecture that still works tomorrow
As flexibly as concepts have to adapt to demand, so too are the possibilities of our architecture in the commercial sector. Our high-quality design concepts can be transformed and extended — and are thus sustainable and future-proof. This is evident in prestigious retail, but also in the VW Autostadt, where we redesigned entrances and staircases for an originally planned exhibition pavilion first into a reception desk and later into a children's playground — always in the customary strikingly refined formal language.
