Thursday, December 23, 2010

"Room of Silence": Unusual interior with cube, blue lighting and titanium shingles creates mystical atmosphere

There is an almost mystical atmosphere in the "Room of Silence", a place for employees and visitors to pause, relax and find their inner balance. It is located in the Q2 building on the new campus of the ThyssenKrupp Quarter in Essen. Recently opened, the "Room of Silence" stretches over two floors and consists of an anteroom and a main room. In the latter, a large cube appears to be suspended in the air. The inside walls of this cube are lined with hundreds of titanium shingles illuminated by a blue light - an unusual atmosphere charged by the contrast between the cube and the smoothly finished walls of the room.

This unique "Room of Silence" has been created by ThyssenKrupp to give employees and guests the opportunity to contemplate their inner balance, experiences at work and their objectives. Given the Group's global reach, the room cannot provide "one-size-fits-all" answers, but it literally offers space for people to find their inner self and think about their future. A room of this kind must be neutral and yet appeal to each visitor personally. The positive feedback from employees and visitors in the short time since it was opened show that ThyssenKrupp's "Room of Silence" is meeting the need of many people to seek a moment's peace during their working day.

Much of the atmosphere is created by the room's interior architecture. On the inner walls of the cube, 250 by 120 millimeter shingles made from a total of 500 kilograms of titanium are bathed in soft lighting. As in many other areas of the Group's new headquarters, this project underlines ThyssenKrupp's materials capabilities: The titanium was produced by ThyssenKrupp VDM at its facilities in Essen, Germany and Terni, Italy. The titanium sheets were stamped by Lummel GmbH & Co. KG (Karlstadt) into hundreds of shingles which were then used in the "Room of Silence".

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