Technology that critically reflects its practical application finds astonishingly modern ideas in ancient sources. Thus technai, a central category in Greek philosophy, did not (yet) know anything about fixing mechanics and machines. Rather the term referred to a network of technique and handicraft, from arts and sciences, which permanently fathomed the interstices of the métier both theoretically and practically.

From a current viewpoint, mastering this transfer of ideas can be grasped in the intention to view your own company from changing perspectives. Only in this way is it possible to transmogrify a wide variety of skills into a futuristic work. Shaping this process is the maxim of our actions. It summons us to think beyond present conventions. The white ball of the Niemeyer Sphere is its sign visible from afar. Seemingly weightless, it defies gravity on a brick construction. It forms an architectonic body and symbol of infinite cosmic space at one and the same time. Within its space, various intentions fuse into a building whose mood and effect cannot be expressed in normal language.

Niemeyer was convinced that good architecture can only arise from a combination of imagination and technical intelligence. We too contemplate the possible before the feasible when Heiterblick reflects on the tramway of the future and brings the highest technical standards into harmony with aesthetic claims in the Kirow factory halls. Clever ideas are our most important resource. We do not rely on spontaneity but instead create facts that inspire interrelations on our company grounds: Next to the domain of our technicians, Halle 9 has become established as an urban art venue. Artists have moved into a building next door. Employees from the spinning works visit our canteen daily and soon the citizens of the city will be able to enjoy the culinary delights on offer in the restaurant in the evenings – or round off the day chillaxing in the Niemeyer Dome. Presence and meeting different actors are the basis of our strategy. They transform the location into an open field for sensory experiences, for intellectual exchange and multifaceted inspiration, in brief: into a thinking space for unusual ideas.

Photos:
Tillmann Franzen
Margret Hoppe & Sebastian Stumpf