Seating that sinks uncomfortably far down and has no fixed armrest to support oneself is just as unpleasant for a 14-year-old as it is for an 80-year-old. So is tripping over a slightly raised threshold between two rooms, which is why access to each room is completely at ground level.

Every area is accessible to wheelchair users or people walking on crutches without hesitation. In no case does anything have to be moved aside first. Which means I haven’t filled any room to its maximum. A well-designed space does not need to have each centimeter filled up.

The curvature of the pavilion, as the most striking aspect of the former gas station, is picked up in the design language in many places. The cement tile ARCH (Popham Design), the round bars at the (curved) café bar and the kitchen units, the niches with round arches in the kitchen and bakery, round seating furniture, or ones with rounded elements.

The leading color is PANTONE 5473 C, a dark blue cyan shade that combines the calmness of blue with the balance of green, making it a unique shade associated with openness and energy. This is emphasized by soft, accompanying tones of gray oak for the floor and dark oak for the tabletop, as well as black serving as a contrast. In the café and store, yellow galvanized steel is an eyecatcher as counter tops or shelves. Large plants round off each room.

SPECIAL FEATURES
In order to offer every person an ergonomic workplace in the kitchen or bakery, parts of the kitchen units are lowered and can be moved underneath. These areas can be used by people in wheelchairs or children. The tables of the kitchen islands are height-adjustable and can be adjusted according to the group dynamics. For optimal accessibility, not only for wheelchair users, the skirting boards are 30cm high. This allows items on the lowest shelf to be reached without having to bend over heavily or kneel down.

LIGHT CONCEPT
As a playful element that balances the order and straightness of all other elements, the thin light strips float on the ceiling. In the kitchen and bakery area, where the room height is greater, they are suspended to be at the same level as the rest of the rooms. In this way, I pick up on the playfulness of the light tubes in the pavilion, which serve as eye-catchers, especially in the evening and night hours.

Let’s make everything visible and accessible.

PAVILION
To allow for barrier-free paths all around the floor needs to be leveled throughout the pavilion. The access from the outside will also be significantly flatter than it currently is. The previously very small toilet room will be enlarged into a barrierfree restroom, including a diaper-changing unit, that can now be accessed from the café area. An electric sliding door will be installed to save space. The door opposite the stairs will be replaced with a continuous glass wall to match the rest of the pavilion. In exchange, a little further forward, the single door becomes a wide double door, matching the one opposite, so that there is access from both sides of the street at the same height.

BASEMENT
The layout of the basement remains as before. The space is suitable as a storage area for café and store products, as well as for a push-through / hood dishwasher and as a washing and drying room for work clothes. To let more daylight into the basement, the light wells will be mirrored. The exterior glass tiles will be reground so that they are no longer dirty and cloudy.

DRIVE THRU
The curb space next to the back door of the pavilion will be removed. The ground will also be leveled here. The former fuel islands at the edge will become bicycle parking with charging stations. Grassed steel cables create a connection up to the roof and protect the charging stations and parked bikes from the rain.

HALLS
The roll-up doors are replaced with floor-to-ceiling glass folding sliding doors with steel frames. The dividing half-height walls are removed, creating one large space. However, in order to still be able to partition the individual zones (kitchen, bakery, hallway), ceiling-high, glass folding sliding doors with steel frames will be installed here as well. Access to the rear part of the building now runs centrally, the folding doors can also be opened electrically. The windows facing the street will retain their shape and size, but will also have steel frames. The floor will be leveled.

STORAGE AREA
Here, too, a large, open area is to be created, so all existing partition walls must be removed. On the one hand, a barrier-free toilet room and a barrier-free bathroom will be created on the walls, as well as a large office area opposite. The office space will be separated by floor-to-ceiling glass windows with steel frames.

The darkest parts of the back of the building should be used as a changing room and for storage. To prevent wood dust generated by the machines from dirtying the shelves, floor-to-ceiling glass windows with steel frames are used here as well.

ROOF
For as much daylight as possible in all areas of the halls, two more skylights are opened. They move further in pattern to the existing ones.
The entire roof area will be planted with vegetation, thus beautifying Stuttgart’s cityscape, offering all An a beautiful view and improving the building’s climate (improved thermal insulation in winter, heat shield in summer). The vegetation also protects the roof seal against weather influences, so that green roofs last up to twice as long as conventional flat roofs.