Construction of new furniture store, including façade design — Dornierstraße 1 + 2, 73730 Esslingen, Germany — 36,000 m² — 2008 — Möbel Rieger GmbH & Co. KG, Göppingen, Germany
From another World
Embedded in the Esslingen-Sirnau commercial park on the federal highway B10, the mysteriously shining Möbel Rieger furniture store looks as elegant as it does delicate, with its champagne-coloured aluminium façade and its surrounding pillars. Since 2007, blocher partners has been collaborating with Rieger. Its accomplishments include the construction of a new furniture store in Heilbronn.
Perpendicular aluminium panels break down the façade. The ribbon windows installed in the shell of the building appear even from afar as oversized picture windows – inviting, provoking curiosity and, with their bright orange graphic, sparking a desire to furnish one's own home. In an area of some 36,000 square metres, the Rieger presents the entire scope of modern living, broken down into an imposing furniture department store and a generous kitchen equipment department, connected by an all-around enclosed bridge.
Spectacular Staging
In the entryway, the visitor is met by fireworks of colour that define the space. Materials like effects and networks of pathways stretch artfully across the vertical. Staircases, roller conveyors and glass elevators connect the three floors, ending directly under the transparent ceiling dome.
Organically curving bridge structures in airy heights permit a continual change of position and invite the observer to stand and watch for hours. Instead of one-way shopping, customers can at any time turn onto the main routes or diverge again from their paths and delve into the different varieties of furniture sets.
Rieger is treading new paths with its Möbelarena furniture store. Key to the concept are a carefully selected range of products and tastefully differentiated worlds of living, based on the shop-in-shop principle. The name "Arena" has been chosen not only with reference to the two dynamically shaped parts of the building; it also thoroughly imbues the sales concept. The furniture and accessories are staged spectacularly, and presented to the customer in a lively way, as creative furnishing ideas.
