RIMOWA Area

In less than ten years, the German family business RIMOWA, owned by the Morszeck family for three generations since 1898, has exhausted the spatial possibilities of the original land in the Lhotka industrial zone in Pelhřimov and purchased one of the last available plots in this zone. The operations of this company rely on a nearly brotherly cooperation with the company LIWA, owned by the Vašina couple, who are passing the reins of the company to the younger generation, the Kozler family. It is Mr. Vladimír Kozler and Mr. Dieter Morszeck who make up the visionary duo that drives the RIMOWA company to the highest quality levels, and today we can already speak of a luxury brand of global format.

The purchased plots are intersected by a roadway, and the terrain is dynamically sloped. Therefore, the plan to build a new complex had to learn to move forward and turn the disadvantage of the terrain into an advantage while maintaining the logic of traffic flows without crossing pedestrian and vehicular traffic. In the previous year 2011, the first phase of the two-story production hall, a two-story administrative building, and a single-story warehouse, which is one of the tallest in the Czech Republic, was implemented. The two-story reinforced concrete skeleton with a clear floor height of 4.5 m and a span of 20 m with column modules of 6 m has created sufficient space for the current needs of the company, which installed not only part of the original technologies here but also robotic elements of the most modern equipment. The mass of the warehouse rises dominant toward the sky, reaching a height of 20.7 m. The foundation trolleys lift goods to a height of 17.5 m. The façade comprises the administrative building with facilities for offices, a dining room with a serving area, and changing rooms. An internal information system aids orientation in the building, which will eventually extend to the exterior, naturally guiding everyone in the future so-called “RIMOWA city”. The reinforced concrete skeleton of the two-story production and two-story administrative building is complemented by a steel load-bearing skeleton structure of the warehouse. All cladding and roofing is insulated, assembled with exterior horizontal ribbing synchronizing with the shape of the aluminum suitcase, which is one of the main attributes of the company. All ceilings are reinforced concrete, and the floors are wire concrete with an aggregate. Plastic windows transition into steel-aluminum structural glazing of parts of the offices and dining room. The entrance is sheltered by a hanging canopy, and the composition of the three masses (administration, production, warehouse) is completed by the corporate signage above the entrance and on the warehouse. The reserve for development is sufficient, and the project fully respects and accounts for this growing composition. The modern vision of the owners has invited additional cooperating companies, primarily the Swedish company ARLAPLAST, which produces sheets from polycarbonate granulate; these will be moved from the currently under-construction hall by a collector effect beneath the roadway using a special conveyor system into the already existing presented RIMOWA hall. The composition of the already functioning hall of cooperators (ARLAPLAST and others), the LIWA hall, which is also being built this year, and the adjacent parking lot is evident from the attached visualization of the future. At a recent presentation for 110 of the most significant traders related to the company, the concept of having cooperators in one place, the quality of the building and technology, the quality of human potential in the city of Pelhřimov, and last but not least, the necessity for additional support for the so-called sales department in the form of an extension of the receding floor to the existing administration (see visualization with an exterior steel supporting structure and suspended volumetric elements of walls and glass) were all praised.

Attached to the images of the realized hall are the site plan of the complex, a cross-section through the traffic collector, and a visualization of the “RIMOWA city” being built this year, which will be completed in May next year. We are happy to document the town again and present it in its realized form in 12 months.