News Both architecturally and in terms of production equipment, the new West building, with its 5,000 m2 of floor space and 230 workstations, is an important milestone in the expansion of the Schaffhouse watch manufacturer.
Only three years after inaugurating its new East building and barely a year after opening its museum, IWC Schaffhausen celebrated the commissioning of its new West Building on 12 September. With the latter, the subsidiary of the Richemont group confirms its credentials as an innovative firm: built from steel, concrete, glass and aluminium, the edifice symbolises the company’s development from a number of angles (workstations, ecology and architecture).
Every year, some 7,000 IWC aficionados make the pilgrimage to Schaffhausen where they can see how their beloved timepieces take shape. Schaffhausen, for these people, is the "seat of time". The new West building now makes this seat a good deal more transparent. Given the rigorous standards of cleanliness and security that prevail in a watch manufactory it became necessary to introduce a novel way of showing visitors around while preventing direct access to the manufactory. So now, both assembly floors can be viewed from a unique 360-degree visitors’ circuit inside the new building. A panoramic corridor lined with floor-to-ceiling, fully transparent interior glass partitions provides an uninterrupted view of all 150 workplaces. Such transparency allows visitors to observe every step in the crafting of an IWC timepiece – from assembling the movement, through its fitting inside the housing and attachment of the hands and dial, all the way to fine adjustment and final inspection.
Moreover, the new West wing raises the bar for standards in watchmakers’ workplaces. The semi-automatic watchmakers’ benches are adjustable and equipped with electronic instruments so the quality of work can be immediately checked at each step of the way for greater efficiency. The new West wing also features a unique lighting design: fully automatic control ensures constant, daylight-like brightness all the time.
Climatic conditions for the precision mechanical work performed on the 1st and 2nd floors of the new West building call for constant air humidity and a temperature of 22–24 degrees to prevent possible corrosion of individual parts. Therefore, the air quality in the new West wing is comparable to that in a medical operating theatre. Because the air needs to be as dust-free as possible, access to the manufactory is via anti-dust and anti-dirt airlock systems. Air within the production area is renewed four to six times every hour. A positive pressure differential relative to the external zone prevents dust from entering into the manufactory space.
Introduced in 2005 as a pioneering project within the East building, the use of heat pumps and groundwater for heating and cooling lies at the core of endeavours for a positive energy balance. As the new West building enters service, this innovative system has now been extended with three more heat pumps to meet its energy requirements. For creating the building’s interior environment, this pumping system can produce 6 °C cooling or 58 °C heating supplied separately or in tandem.
In addition, IWC extracts heat from the city’s sewer system using a 60-metre long heat exchanger, thus obtaining additional energy for heating and cooling purposes. Furthermore, groundwater pumped from two well shafts and fed to indoor chilled beams for cooling plays a major role in the overall system. Use of these innovative technologies massively reduces the need for fossil fuels. Cladding the building is a triple-glazed skin; its high insulation factor is a significant help in reducing energy requirements. Rainwater collected from the roof of the new West building goes to flush toilets, another measure that is in keeping with IWC’s policy of active climate protection.
Thanks to IWC’s trailblazing practices with renewable energy resources, CO2 emissions from production facilities could be halved even before the West wing was occupied. The new building will be of major help in further improving this balance, and it underlines the company’s drive to actively contribute towards climate protection. Such addressing of environmental issues earned IWC certification as a CO2-neutral company in summer 2007. Looking ahead, modernisation of its premises alone will enable IWC to achieve a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010.
As with the East wing, Schaffhausen architects Hofer and Kick have chosen a contemporary, international language of form and materials for the new West building. Its four storeys symmetrically complement the manufactory’s East wing and together they extend out to the Rhine, framing the main building erected by Florentine Ariosto Jones, the company’s founder. The glass façades create expansive, high-ceilinged workspaces, suffused with light. The open plan structure encourages interaction among employees. Generous dimensions in the indoor lounge areas and an open-air terrace between the old and new building bear witness to a contemporary, communicative corporate culture. Says CEO Georges Kern, "A company’s building architecture does more than radiate an outward statement, it also affects employees’ sense of well-being and motivation."
The company’s status as a producer of luxury goods with understated cachet is also apparent in the choice of materials for the new West building. Glazed concrete symbolises architectural coolness, high-grade wooden floors signify consummate Swissness, while the application of glass and metal promotes an unassumingly elegant yet self-assured reverence for Schaffhausen’s tradition as a long-established industrial centre.
At those moments when the watchmakers’ manufactory becomes bathed in the reflected flicker of sunlight playing on the waters of the Rhine, it is possible to experience the romance that during the 19th Century transformed this craft into a coveted occupation. In this respect, the new West building stands as an architectural icon of a renaissance in the art of watchmaking.
September 30, 2008
