Spreestudio Clubhaus

Berlin

The new building will be positioned parallel to the adjacent water basin, ensuring protection of the landscape with an appropriate distance.

The building is expected to be used by 13 units. Four units on the ground floor will extend over a space height of approximately 5.60 meters, featuring a suspended gallery accessible via an internal staircase. Eight smaller units on the upper floor will be accessed via two stairwells. One stairwell core with sanitary facilities will extend to the roof and provide access to the top rental unit, a meeting room. The roof will be designed as a walkable area with intensive landscaping and will be accessible to all tenants.

The building will be constructed using a combination of wooden and reinforced concrete structures. Core areas inside and the floor slabs will be made of reinforced concrete, providing stability to the skeleton structure. Wooden columns and ceiling beams will be installed according to structural requirements and fire protection standards. The terrace and the meeting room on the roof will be constructed using a mixed wood and steel framework.

The façade construction will be made of wood with a metallic surface and will feature individual floor-to-ceiling window elements. The water side will be entirely constructed using a post-and-beam system with glass.

The interior fit-out will include only basic sanitary facilities and connections for a kitchenette in each rental unit. Flooring and wall surfaces will be finished by the tenants themselves.

The building will be constructed using a combination of timber and reinforced concrete structures. The internal cores and floor slabs will be made of reinforced concrete, providing rigidity to the skeletal structure. Wooden columns and ceiling beams will be installed according to structural requirements and fire protection standards. The terrace and the meeting room on the roof will be built using a mixed wood and steel construction.

The façade construction will be made of wood with a metallic finish and will feature individual floor-to-ceiling window elements. The waterside will be entirely constructed with a post-and-beam system using glass.

The interior fit-out will include only basic sanitary facilities and connections for a kitchenette in each rental unit. Flooring and wall surfaces will be finished by the tenants themselves.

Concrete Hybrid Living Wood

Data

Study

2016

Address

Zur alten Flussbadeanstalt 1
10317 Berlin
Germany

Client

Spreestudios GmbH Co. KG

Wulf-Hefe-Gallery

Werl

The goal of the "Hefe-Galery" project is the redevelopment of an inner-city brownfield site, whose previous use as a brewery became obsolete with the demolition of the building.

The new building compensates for the deficit in event and dining spaces. The differentiation of the retail structure attracts new external customer traffic, thereby strengthening Werl's inner-city retail landscape beyond just the immediate location.

The limited land resource has been occupied by a two-story building that aligns with the local scale. Retail, dining, logistics, and administration are located on the ground floor, with parking and technical facilities on the upper floor, as well as event spaces on both levels. Green areas are incorporated into the rooftop.

The primary structural framework consists of a prefabricated reinforced concrete construction with spans of 10x10 meters on the ground floor and 20x30 meters on the upper floor. After completion of the second construction phase, the usable area will be approximately 12,000 m².

The building features a central control system for optimized resource management. Rainwater is collected decentrally, stored centrally in a cistern, and then directed into a greywater system. High visitor traffic is managed through a complex supply and disposal concept that takes into account day and night cycles to minimize impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

Concrete Mixed Office Public Retail Steel

Data

Completion

2008

Address

Soester Str. 26
59457 Werl
Germany

Client

Grundstücksgesellschaft Friedrich Bremke GmbH & Co.KG

Competition Volkswohl Bund Insurance

Dortmund

Volkswohl Bund Insurance aims to secure its success for the future. To achieve this, a new building with modern workplaces and functions is necessary.

Urban Planning Concept

The block perimeter at Chemnitzer Straße – Hohe Straße – Südwall will be closed. The existing street-level base floors will be demolished, and the high-rise will be exposed and accessed via an appropriate, forecourt. This square opens up the city access from Hohe Straße towards the city center and visually connects the city center with the adjacent residential area. A place with vibrant qualities will emerge. The courtyard will be extensively greened and kept free of vehicular traffic.

Design/Architectural Concept

The building will be centrally accessible—a two-story entrance hall serves as the starting point for straightforward navigation within the building. From here, all functional units are directly accessible. Two building wings will be constructed parallel to Südwall. The space between these wings will be designed as a water feature and will be generously visible from the entrance hall.

Material

The new building will be bright! The glass facades are full-height and alternate with stainless steel surfaces on the solid parts. The roof surfaces of the underground garage will be greened. The floors in the entrance hall and the dining areas will have natural stone coverings, while the office areas will feature continuous textile floor coverings. The skylobby will have a wooden floor that extends out as a terrace into the roof garden. Walls adjacent to the facades will be made of drywall. Interior walls leading to the corridors can be transparent or opaque in certain areas or covered with wood.

Construction

The structural framework—columns and flat slabs—will be constructed from reinforced concrete. The existing ceiling structures of the existing building will receive a suspended cooling ceiling with a clear room height of approximately 2.85 meters. The conference room will be opened up over two floors, allowing for the seamless integration of technical infrastructure for climate control and media. The roof of the dining area will be designed as a sloped concrete slab, with parts of it being greened.

Principles of Technical Equipment

Minimizing cooling and heating energy requirements, maintaining low operating costs, high daylight utilization, high thermal comfort, and cost-efficiency.

Outdoor Areas

The property will be significantly built upon. The roof of the underground garage will be greened and accessible. Terrace areas in front of the dining areas will be paved or covered with wood. All plants will have shallow roots and be suitable for flat roofs—trees and hedges will have separate planting elements. The courtyard between the building wings will be covered with a pond. Bamboo will be placed in special planting elements within the water area.

Concrete Glass Office Steel

Data

Competition

2007

Address

Südwall 37 - 41
44137 Dortmund

Awarding Authority

VOLKSWOHL BUND Versicherungen, Dortmund

Competition Ningbo Tower

Ningbo, China

Ningbo, located about 200 km south of Shanghai, is historically shaped by Chinese tradition, British colonial rule, and recent engagement with the political West. The urban traces of this history are evident in the juxtaposition of different building typologies.

Our client, the leading privately organized company for educational materials in China and a private school operator, requires a new headquarters. The project involves 10,000 square meters of office space and 25,000 square meters of retail space, to be developed at the intersection of the colonial city edge and contemporary Chinese urban development of the past twenty years.

The corporate culture focuses on traditional values and natural resources. Consequently, we proposed a building with a rational structural system and flexible floor plan organization. The façade is an artificial representation of a stone or rock, reflecting the company’s culture. It is constructed from pigmented reinforced concrete and features box windows inserted at regular intervals.

The energy concept integrates geothermal and waste heat from the shopping center in the three podium levels, as well as from the office floors, combined with component activation. This approach allows for a single-layer concrete skin with minimal weight, simplifying connection points. As a result, the extension of multi-story façade sections beyond the regular façade plane is easily achievable.

Concrete Office Retail Steel

Data

Competition

2005

Address

315000 Ningbo,
Provinz Zhejiang
China

Awarding Authority

Privat

Competition Stadion Union Berlin

Berlin

UNION BERLIN is getting a new stadium on the same site—a historic location that has shaped the extraordinary closeness between the club and its fans. In Wuhlheide, situated between the Wuhle and the forest, a pure football arena has been in use for decades. The characteristic spatial proximity between the pitch and the stands is enhanced and atmospherically intensified in the proposed design through the geometry of the new structure.

A stadium transforms into a theater—a pitch becomes a stage— and the stands turn into seating tiers and boxes with areas for dining, merchandising, infrastructure, and more.

The new stadium is optimized for marketing capabilities (media/advertising) and third-party usage options (additional uses).

All spectator seats will be covered. The roof covering will be translucent, colored, and will thus serve as a signal. The roof membrane extends into the facade plane of the top gallery, creating the appearance of a floating, luminous object.

The primary structure consists of prefabricated reinforced concrete elements, while the roof framework is made of a steel truss with V-shaped supports and rear guy wires. This design ensures that all seating rows are free of supports and unobstructed. Lighting, sound systems, and drainage are integrated into the construction. The surfaces available for advertising are maximized and optimally aligned with camera positions. These include the perimeter boards, the interior and exterior edges of the roof surfaces, the surrounding areas of the upper and lower galleries, VIP boxes, and the exterior of the textile facade (which can display changing illuminated advertisements), among others. In addition to conventional camera positions, the upper gallery will serve as the main camera location, with options available at any point.

Concrete Public Steel

Awards

1.Prize

Data

Competition

2003

Address

An der Wuhlheide 263
12555 Berlin
Germany

Awarding Authority

Senate of the City of Berlin
with FC Union Berlin

Olpe 39

Dortmund

The district at the Ostwallmuseum, in its current form, emerged at the beginning of the 20th century within the historic city wall ring. Since then, it has been characterized by residential space mixed intensively with small retail areas. This allowed a suburban environment to develop immediately adjacent to the city center, which gained regional significance primarily due to its gastronomic diversity from the 1960s to the 1990s.

At this inner-city location, the lifespan of a building is determined by its ability to flexibly respond to changing uses and requirements.

With this in mind, "Olpe 39" is based on the concept of storage (storage system/virtual storage/stacked urban space).

The facade translates this idea into a "Macro-Chip": it signals different synapses in the form of differentiated glass panels, which are either transparent or translucent. The interior-exterior visual relationship is focused through translucent facade sections—the external space, park, and trees shape the view outside and are integrated into the building's interior. They fill the view (unobstructed by facade profiles, safety barriers, ventilation flaps, or radiators). The view remains unobstructed.

Concrete Glass Living Office

Data

Completion

2002

Address

Olpe 39
44135 Dortmund

Client

HBP Grundstücksverwaltung GbR mbH Dortmund

Residential Building Van-Galen-Straße

Marl

Marl in Westphalia is a young city. Its growth primarily prospered due to the development of the Hüls chemical works—now Chemiepark Hüls, among others including Evonik Degussa. In particular, the 1970s saw internationally recognized architectural landmarks with high experimental potential: the Town Hall and Art Gallery (Bakema), the New City Marl (Kleihues), and the Hügelhaus (Hermann Schröder/Peter Faller).

Here, at the inner edge of the city center, along Von-Galen-Strasse, are simple residential buildings from the 1940s—ribbon structures (9x30 m), two stories with a load-bearing central longitudinal wall and a gently pitched gable roof without an attic. The technical infrastructure and the building envelopes need to be completely renewed. A detailed analysis of the planned measures revealed high budgets for renovation without improving living quality. Therefore, we propose removing the existing buildings and replacing them with new ones. If the new constructions are built as modular structures, for example using prefabricated concrete components, it would be possible to create flexible, usage-neutral floor plans at no additional cost compared to renovation measures.

The new buildings are being constructed on the same site to preserve the valuable tree stock on the properties. They are elevated by half a story, providing parking space for 6 cars and 15 bicycles. Above-ground parking facilities become obsolete and can be used for additional construction in the future. The floor plan orientation follows solar exposure: all living areas are oriented towards the west, while the east side is consistently closed. This prevents mutual visibility into private spaces and assigns garden areas exclusively to individual buildings. The building height is aligned with the surrounding construction and will be 2.5 stories. After the completion of the first construction phase, seven existing buildings (approximately 2,725 m² of living space) were replaced by eight new buildings (approximately 3,820 m² of usable space). In the second construction phase, seven square, single-story, stilted point houses (cars, bicycles, and waste management are located below the building at ground level) with approximately 850 m² of usable space (GRZ 0.2, GFZ 0.66) will replace former car parking spaces.

Systematics

The floor plans are based on a layering of building components and functions. The depth of the apartments does not exceed 7.5 meters. Concrete pillars with longitudinal beams are located directly behind the facade plane. Concrete hollow-core slabs span across both longitudinal axes. All components are prefabricated. Three installation shafts at strategically advantageous positions complete the solid skeleton.

The facades are hung in front of the structure—the east sides are closed, while the west sides are fully opened, allowing each room direct access to the balconies. This creates gardens that are exclusively assigned to individual buildings and are not visible from external vantage points. Waste management, private parking spaces directly associated with the apartments, technical and storage rooms, as well as laundry and drying rooms are located beneath the stilted houses. Each building contains 6 apartments with approximately 480 m² of rental space. The staircases flank the houses on the east side and are connected to the garage and public pathways. The apartments are variable, with movable walls, and flexible sizes. Each unit can be modified in 15-square-meter increments—building technology and separate meter reading provisions support this. The apartments are offered as "floor units," with actual floor plans customizable in collaboration with the tenants. Lofts with standard sanitary facilities are rented at minimal prices. Additional building elements (walls, doors, etc.) increase the base rent.

The roof is double-layered and consists of curved BSH beams, trapezoidal sheet metal, mineral insulation with ventilation, and a silver KalZip exterior skin. The high reflectivity and ventilation result in low heat absorption of the structure and minimal temperature fluctuations within the usable areas. The closed roof and facade surfaces merge seamlessly—“smooth building”—creating a volume that integrates smoothly with the existing vegetation. The gable sides are clad with large wooden panels. Underneath, there is also a double-layered construction with ventilation. The window surfaces continue the aluminum skin (KalZip).

An option is to provide as much variability as possible in floor plans and building technology. All future changes can be made by the client's technical staff.

Concrete Living Steel

Data

Completion

2001

Address

Von-Galen-Straße 1-15
45768 Marl
Germany

Client

Ruhr-Lippe-Wohnungsbaugesellschaft mbH, Dortmund

Friedrich-List-Platz

Leipzig

The first reinforced concrete building in Leipzig housed the "Leipziger Textil Center" (LTC) until 1996. The usage was discontinued in favor of high-density development on this site at the edge of Leipzig’s city center. On approximately 57,000 square meters at the city’s edge, offices, shops, 120 apartments, and about 400 parking spaces were created.

The buildings were all constructed using in-situ concrete with round columns and flat slabs. The floor plans are flexible and can be divided into units starting from 150 square meters. All surface water is collected and directed into ponds located in the three courtyards.

Among the tenants are Leipzig-TV with offices, studios, and production spaces, a private school, and a number of medium-sized businesses.

Concrete Glass Office Steel

Awards

1. Prize
Appraisal Procedure

Data

Completion

2001

Address

Friedrich-List-Platz 1
04103 Leipzig
Germany

Client

Büll & Dr. Liedke
Hamburg

Janke Robotics Technologies

Düsseldorf

On the northern edge of the Düsseldorf/Cologne metropolitan area, near the international Düsseldorf Airport, the administrative and manufacturing building for Janke Roboterbau Technologien was constructed. The building was completed and put into operation in 2001. Janke is a rapidly expanding company in the field of robotics for foundries.

The functional structure of the building consists of an experimental hall, where various test configurations can be set up and operated, and an engineering and administrative section. Our goal was to create a very compact building that would facilitate short distances between the executing technology and planning. Additionally, the building footprint was to be minimized. The design also aimed to allow for a future expansion to double the building size with minimal disruption.

The structural framework is made from prefabricated reinforced concrete elements. The facades are extensively glazed to optimize natural lighting for all work areas. The sharply pitched roof of the administrative section drains onto the green roof of the experimental hall; from there, the water evaporates rather than being directed into the drainage system.

Concrete Office

Data

Completion

2001

Address

Borsigstraße 1
40880 Ratingen
Germany

Client

L. Janke GmbH

Residential Development And Redensification Bergkamen

Bergkamen

Bergkamen is an artificial settlement. It followed the mining industry northward, was initiated by it, and grew along with it. There is no traditional town center. The economic hub, characterized by high density, dates back to the 1970s but remains unfinished to this day. Most of today’s residents do not work in the mining industry, and the city is attempting to develop a tourist profile by restructuring abandoned industrial sites along the canal (marina, restaurants, leisure businesses, etc.) and to attract innovative industries. With its residential areas bordering directly on open landscapes, Bergkamen is an attractive place to live for commuters working in the Ruhr region. Property prices and living costs are low here.

One of the existing settlements from the 1960s is part of the portfolio of Ruhr-Lippe-Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH, a non-profit company that has invested significant resources in renovating the current properties both in terms of energy efficiency and structure (raising buildings due to subsidence from mining damage). The plot sizes are generously dimensioned, with large distances between houses. We propose a densification of the existing area that takes into account the specific spatial situations. As a result, a family of buildings will grow, including three-story point houses, two-story apartment buildings, and single-story rows with maisonette apartments. All of these will have direct exterior access to shared garden spaces and private loggias (top floor), balconies (upper floor), or terraces (ground floor).

New buildings will be constructed as prefabricated composite structures made of wood and reinforced concrete elements, with neutral floor plans that offer a high degree of flexibility. The buildings will not have basements. The existing trees on the plots will be preserved. Above-ground parking areas will be consolidated at several central locations. The orientation of the floor plans follows the sunlight: all living spaces are oriented to the south, while utility, auxiliary, or bedrooms are located on the north side.

Systematics

The floor plans are based on a layering of building components and functions. The apartment depth is approximately 10 meters. Steel columns with steel beams run longitudinally, positioned directly behind the facade line and along the central axis. Hollow-core concrete slabs span the transverse axis. All components are prefabricated at the factory. Strategically positioned service shafts complete the solid structural framework.

The facades are hung in front of the structure, creating an interplay between closed, highly insulated elements with clapboard siding (larch) and floor-to-ceiling, operable windows. On the south side, private terraces, balconies, and loggias are incorporated, directly adjacent to the communal garden areas. Technical rooms are located centrally, with storage space, laundry, and drying rooms within each apartment. Staircases extend across the entire height of the building, functioning as semi-public spaces. The apartments are flexible, with movable walls and adaptable apartment sizes. Each unit can be modified in increments of 15 square meters—building technology and separated utility metering make this possible. Apartments are offered as "space units," with floor plans designed individually with tenants. Lofts with standard sanitary facilities are rented at minimal prices, and additional building elements (walls, doors, etc.) increase the base rent.

The barrel-shaped roof is multi-layered, consisting of curved glued laminated timber beams (BSH), a gypsum board interior lining, trapezoidal metal sheeting, mineral insulation with ventilation, and an exterior layer of silvery KalZip. The high reflectivity and ventilation result in minimal heating of the structure and low temperature fluctuations within the living spaces. The gable and longitudinal sides are constructed using the same prefabricated timber frame elements and floor-to-ceiling windows, creating the appearance of a large, homogeneous, and continuous exterior skin.

The design prioritizes maximum flexibility in floor plans and building technology. All future modifications can be carried out by the client’s technical staff.

Concrete Hybrid Living Steel Wood