Mühlengrund district

Berlin

The “Mühlengrund” in Neu-Hohenschönhausen is a popular and still affordable residential area surrounded by large-scale urban structures on the northern outskirts of Berlin. In recent years, however, infrastructural deficits have become increasingly apparent here. There was no “neighborhood center” and there is a shortage of doctors. In order to meet the growing demand for housing in Berlin and the needs of residents who have lived here for a long time, the plots of a former department store and two unprofitable new buildings from the 1990s were released for demolition a few years ago. The convenient transport connections with a streetcar stop, a beautiful stock of trees and an existing neighborhood square with a remarkable fountain sculpture provided the backdrop for a neighborhood development with three buildings around this lively outdoor space.

Building

The open floor plans of the houses are filled with a variety of different types of apartments - apartments with outside access through a private garden, single apartments and multi-storey apartments with different numbers of rooms through to open-plan apartments for five or more people. The inner courtyards are private, reserved for the building community and their guests - with children's playgrounds, trees and benches for spending time together. The access systems are developed in a differentiated manner depending on the orientation of the building, use of the ground floor and optimized escape routes. The roof areas are extensively greened or covered with PV systems for tenant electricity. Stationary traffic is organized in the basement levels of buildings 1 and 3, as are a relevant proportion of the bicycle parking spaces, the building services and storage rooms for rental units.

Construction

The three buildings of different heights and storeys - VI - VIII - were developed as 3 free-standing volumes in timber-concrete hybrid construction:
The supporting structure of each building forms a simple skeleton of reinforced concrete columns with semi-precast flat slabs. This creates a “plan libre”, a free floor plan with options for different uses and layouts: Retail and other businesses on the ground floor, the health center and offices on the first floor as a “service horizon”, then the residential floors above with a diverse mix of apartments.

Facade

The building envelope is formed by curtain-type, storey-high wall elements in timber frame construction. The elements were completely pre-assembled at the factory, insulated and clad with rear-ventilated timber or metal façades.
The material of the outer skin changes from house to house or, in some cases, from building side to building side. This creates an exciting interplay of pre-greyed timber and white trapezoidal sheet metal facades. The steel balconies, which are also completely prefabricated, puncture the timber façades in a seemingly random rhythm. Together with the free interplay of the differently sized windows, this creates an exciting façade image.

Concrete Living Mixed Public Wood

Data

Completion

1. BA (House 3) 08.2020
2. BA (House 1+2) 06.2022

Address

House 1: Rotkamp 2-4
House 2: Rotkamp 6
House 3: Rüdickenstr. 33
13053 Berlin

Client

HOWOGE
Wohnungsbaugesellschaft mbH
Ferdinand-Schultze-Str. 71
13055 Berlin

Densification at RWI 4

Düsseldorf

RWI 4 was originally built in 1974 as a bank building and formally corresponds to the representative requirements of companies in the financial and insurance sector at the time. Today, the company no longer exists.

Two twelve-storey office towers currently stand on a two-storey base structure on the extensive site. Underneath, 501 parking spaces are organized on two underground parking levels, which are accessed via an expansive access spindle. We are proposing structural additions to this existing building consisting of two structures: the “Loretto Terraces” on Neusser Strasse and the “LorettoLoretto” in the central location. The three new buildings are intended for residential use with different residential typologies. A total of around 90 apartments are to be built.

Loretto Terraces

A centrally accessed building with six residential storeys on a commercially used first floor, which terraces into the site from Neusser Straße and thus reinterprets the public space/airspace. It reaches a building height of approx. 21.70 m. With the exception of the residents' entrances to the central stairwell and some ancillary/technical rooms, the ground floor is exclusively commercial space. The apartments on the upper floors are grouped around a common atrium with a safety staircase and elevator. Here there are 34 residential units with 2 - 4 rooms and living spaces ranging from 45 m² to 117 m². The distribution of the units around the atrium allows the apartments to face in two directions. Each apartment has a private outdoor area - in the form of a loggia or terrace. The staircase connects the above-ground floors with a two-storey basement, which extends the existing underground garage to compensate for the additional parking space required.

LorettoLoretto

The second building, “LorettoLoretto”, articulates the southern edge of the future town square on the neighboring plot - it will thus become a neighborhood amenity. Commercial space will be created on the first floor - preferably with public facilities such as restaurants, cafés, etc. Above this, the building has six full storeys with purely residential use and one with roof gardens, some of which are directly assigned to individual apartments (families) and others are available to the building community.

This building will be constructed above the existing underground parking garage and will therefore have a basement. Entrances to the stairwells are located on the west façade and the east façade. Access to the upper floors is via 2 stairwells and elevators, which are connected to the upper floors via a central corridor. The building will contain 48 residential units with 2-4 rooms and living spaces ranging from 33 m² to 127 m². In addition to the multi-storey apartments, maisonettes will be created with a two-sided orientation - due to the conical floor plan structure to the NW and SW. All apartments will have private loggias or access to the communal roof terrace (SW).

The apartments are evenly connected to two access cores, one of which leads to the underground garage. Parking spaces for bicycles are protected on the ground floor under a projection of the first floor, outdoors and partly in the basement, car parking spaces in the extension of the existing underground garage (under “Loretto Terraces”).

All apartments are barrier-free. All maisonette apartments have at least one level with barrier-free access, including the bathroom. All floors are accessible at ground level via elevators. A direct elevator connects the underground car park and all floors above ground.

Living

Data

Preliminary building application

2020

Address

Völklinger Straße 4
40219 Düsseldorf
Germany

Client

LIANEO

Hafenhaus

Berlin

The Hafen und Hof GmbH & Co. KG has a large number of different users. In addition to various bus operators, there is also a marina with boat rental operators and a restaurant on the site. In order to expand the offer on the site and meet demand, a new building block is being planned in this ensemble.

In the future, the new “Hafenhaus” building will provide additional gastronomic offerings, space for boarding house use, office space and space for port operations. The aim is to upgrade the location as a whole and meet the needs of current users for more space. Large parts of the first floor are planned as an air floor. This is to ensure that bus operations can continue on the site without restriction.

On the upper floors, 19 units are planned as a boarding house in various sizes. The boarding house is an accommodation facility designed for guests with longer stays. The units facing the waterfront are a special feature. A new gastronomic concept is planned for the first and second floors. The space, which is open across both floors, is to be operated as an exclusive restaurant in a living room-like atmosphere in future.

The top floor is planned as a restaurant and event space. Especially at weekends, when the bus service on the site is largely at a standstill, many Berliners already make use of the gastronomic offerings on the site. The roof terrace is intended to expand this offer both in terms of space and content. In addition to the restaurant, a pool is also planned on the roof.

The building will be constructed as a reinforced concrete skeleton structure. Only the core on the north-western side of the building will be solid. Lightweight partition walls will be made of drywall.

A comprehensive redesign of the water's edge is planned to positively influence the atmosphere on the property. The site has already been developed and the new building will be connected to the existing infrastructure.

Heat will be provided by a combined heat and power plant. In future, this will not only supply the new building, but also the existing “Hafenküche” restaurant.

Concrete Living Mixed

Data

Completion

In Planning

Address

Zur alten Flussbadeanstalt 5
10317 Berlin
Germany

Partner

Interior Architecture: bueroZ, Stuttgart
Statics / Building Physics: IB Horn GmbH, Leipzig
Lighting Design: PS-LAB, Berlin

-

Building Service Equipment Planning: Phönix Sonnenwärme AG, Berlin
Fire Protection: brandschutz+, Berlin

@55 House Of Business

Dortmund

The new “@55” building is located within the “Stadtkrone Ost” conversion area in Dortmund.

The new building stands on a 20 m high embankment and borders directly on a nature conservation area. The storeys are offset from each other, creating a terraced landscape to the south, which can be converted into additional office space if required. On the north side, the storeys overlap the entrance by up to 12 m, creating a cascading roof.

The loads of the cantilevered storeys are bundled at the top and guided downwards with tension cables that follow the slope of the outer wall. Here, the resulting forces are transferred to the ground via a counterweight (approx. 150 m³ cavity filled with sand).

The storeys are unsupported and undetermined, i.e. uses are not predetermined. The building currently houses a restaurant, a medical practice, offices and an apartment.

The façade is homogeneously covered with horizontally laid profiled glass/structural glass, which is held in a point-like manner. This creates a crystalline structure that gives the building an abstract identity. In some places there are ribbon windows behind the outer skin - here the profiled glass can be rotated around the horizontal axis using a simple mechanism - thus providing an unobstructed view of the surroundings.

Concrete Glass Office Steel

Data

Completion

2003

Address

Stockholmer Allee 55
44269 Dortmund
Germany

Client

Privat

F40 – House of Business Friedrichstraße

Berlin

The property at Friedrichstrasse 40 is located in the southern Friedrichvorstadt district, a place that, like its surroundings, was culturally infused for years - inhabited by writers and artists. The plot was initially occupied by a two-storey residential building and later by a multi-storey, high-density front and rear building. The Skadamowski brothers, who are regarded as the inventors of 3D glasses and cinematography in Germany, lived here. In the past, the cultural character of the area, the adjoining entertainment district to the north - between Kochstrasse and Leipziger Strasse - and the Friedrichstrasse shopping street on the other side of Leipziger ensured a high number of visitors. Today, the former border checkpoint “Checkpoint Charlie” marks historical events. It is not far away and is clearly visible from Friedrichstrasse 40.

The new building closes the last gap in the streetscape.

Friedrichstrasse has a distinctly urban character here, with the courtyard area resembling a large garden. We will therefore extend the seven upper floors as deep as possible into the plot. As open floor plans, they will be variable in their use. The façade facing Friedrichstrasse will be formulated with technical precision, completely transparent with vertical glass slats to protect against heating and two-storey bays that link the building to its surroundings - an urban statement. The garden façade is different - also precise but with sliding doors, room-high, for large openings from which you can lean out. The sun protection is “woven” from textile material. In the interior, glass, wood and textiles come together - the city and the garden are interwoven here. Antje Schiffers' pictorial interpretation of the location accompanies the route through the public areas of the building. Sustainability in construction and technology as well as the media supply have already been pre-certified with the GOLD seal of approval by the DGNB.

Glass Office

Awards

DGNB Gold pre-certification

2009

Label "best architects 12"

2011

Iconic Awards

2013

The German Lighting Design-Prize

2013
Exterior lighting and spotlighting

Data

Completion

2011

Address

Friedrichstraße 40
10969 Berlin
Germany

Client

ANH Hausbesitz GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft

Partner

Lichtplanung:
Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung GmbH, Berlin
Freianlagenplanung:
Kamel Louafi Landschaftsarchitekten Berlin
Fotos: Jan Bitter, Berlin

Porsche Center

Dortmund

Porsche is synonymous with technical perfection, formal precision, passion, speed and understatement.

With its new building, Porsche Dortmund gives significant shape to the sensuality of these attributes.

The building is constructed parallel to the highway (B1) - as a direct entrance to the Airport Business Park. The building consists of two components - a base to absorb the topography and a metal membrane resting on it, which envelops a space 8 meters high and 130 meters long. The silhouette is reminiscent of an extruded aluminum profile - a significant reference to the high technical qualities of PORSCHE products. Everything is visible - technical service is staged.

A café lounge provides online images of current racing events, shows ongoing production processes or test runs of the PORSCHE typology. At night, the building makes a media appearance and communicates PORSCHE images via the transparent façades with light installations. The building's structures are all prefabricated - the concrete construction of the base floor consists of inclined columns curved in three directions, computer-animated laser and welding machines produce precise steel and aluminum components that are assembled as individual modules on the construction site to form the building.

Concrete Retail Steel

Data

Completion

2003

Address

Ferdinand-Porsche-Straße 4
59439 Holzwickede

Client

Porsche Zentrum Dortmund

Airporthotel Berlin

Berlin

A new business center with a hotel is being built on Alexander-Meissner-Strasse - the marker of a future business park - to accompany the new Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport.

The building marks the start of the Airport Business Park. Future users and the neighborhood are unknown at the beginning - the site is an undeveloped field. The path to form therefore leads via sustainable footprints: ecological, economic, social and cultural. The relevant parameters are: urban contours, compactness (optimum A/V ratio), an efficient energy concept, functional user requirements, manufacturing processes, use and flow of materials, life cycle considerations, financing strategies, budget limits, etc. We call this process the “Sudoku strategy” (try & error). Basic geometries - cubes, cuboids, slices, lines, dots - are used to find shapes. They can be organized in a free order, vary in length, width and (storey) height and follow the speciﬁcations of the uses that are gradually found. In this way, a systematic collection of coordinated shapes and surfaces is created, which, organized in a meaningful way, depicts a clear configuration at the end of the process.

The result is a house with the required volumes and surfaces. The load-bearing system consists of prefabricated columns and ceiling panels. Like the “domino house” (Le Corbusier), all floor plans are completely variable - the extension is temporary and can be adapted to requirements at any time. All shafts are perpendicular to the façade. The shafts arranged in this way and the horizontal window bands of the façade thus enable unrestricted conversion for third-party use - e.g. as an office building.

Façade

The realization is preceded by an almost three-year planning process until a building application can be submitted. Initially, the client makes an investment decision for this location due to its proximity to the future capital city airport. An urban development concept or a development plan do not yet exist. A competition will be held and will form the basis of the development plan. Users are being sought at the same time. Variants of future building structures are developed, adapted and discarded.

It quickly becomes clear that the building will have to be extremely variable. The uses may change frequently. This makes the planning process itself a critical success criterion: a strategy is required - adaptable and yet clear in its approach. Other parameters must therefore be considered to determine the final appearance. We started by examining various phenomena: Markings in the sky (lines, cloud holes, vistas), global + regional (options of flying), approach + take-off (the play with scale), natural features (nature reserve, birch forest in the neighborhood), technical innovations (development dynamics of aviation technology).

Now façade structures are explored - monolithic, elemental, collaged (glass + concrete), structures, colors, reflections, etc. The decision is made in favour of a horizontal structure that synchronizes the window bands to irritate the viewer. Process-based planning requires an adaptable façade concept - the basic geometries described above are given their actual appearance by a summarizing surface layer: an overall made of steel panels with a defined, summarizing color code. The system is modular and adaptable in planning + construction and creates a structural identity through the color, it is robust, reversible and inexpensive.

Building physics, construction, production and maintenance costs of the façade

The selected system is modular and therefore variable during the planning and construction process. Steel is highly resistant to mechanical stress and is non-combustible due to its material properties (simplified fire protection). Due to its mass, it offers good protection against overheating in summer, increased sound insulation (hotel use) and allows large spans of the façade elements with a minimum number of substructure fixing points. The substructure is based on a multifunctional system strip with concealed fastening, which allows constraint-free and simple plug-in installation. The result is curtain-type, rear-ventilated and permanently flat façades. Temperature influences and construction tolerances are reduced without tension.

The large span width of the façade elements and the minimized substructure (reduction of anchor points) lead to a reduction in thermal bridges. The large span width and large span width of the panels enable shorter installation times and therefore lower installation costs. The minimized number of fixing points reduces heat loss, while the surface coating makes cleaning or maintenance coatings permanently obsolete. The system and façade product thus create a highly cost-effective façade with a cost per square meter of gross floor area that is only slightly higher than that of external thermal insulation composite systems. The surfaces of the raw steel are given a long-lasting finish with a zinc-magnesium alloy. The entire façade system is 100% recyclable + permanently flat façade surfaces.

Color Scheme

What we see is not the shell as the façade of a house, but the “image” of a façade - an abstract composition with which the house eludes a clear classification (building type + use) and instead irritates passers-by and invites them to engage in their own process of abstraction. The color chart provided by the manufacturer did not seem sufficient to achieve this goal. Therefore, additional colors (special colors) were required, which we derived from our coding. The color coating (“matt”) is almost self-cleaning due to its surface structure, UV-stable, non-reflective and color-intensive in all weather conditions and particularly emphasizes the degree of abstraction. The cooperation with Thyssen-Krupp was uncomplicated, supportive and interested at all times - even at a time when the system was new and the costs could not yet be officially calculated.

Hotel Steel

Data

Completion

2012

Address

Alexander-Meissner-Strasse 1
12526 Berlin

Client

ANH Grundbesitz GmbH

Westfalenforum – Re-think the Urban

Dortmund

The era of inner-city shopping malls and shopping streets is coming to an end. New forms of retail and digital payment methods are making old-style shopping malls obsolete. This creates the opportunity to rediscover the city as a living space and give it back to the people. However, it is by no means possible to simply replace retail with housing.

Urbanity is created through plurality

This includes mixed uses as well as different residential typologies that promote real neighborhoods and generate identification potential for one's own “Kiez”. Sustainability, the lowest possible energy requirements, resource awareness from the limited building site to the selected building materials, mobility, etc. are self-evident aspects of the planning. However, the essential characteristic should be the creation of new places where people like to live.

A - Access

A group of buildings of different types with differentiated heights forms a new neighborhood. It is linked by public paths, alleyways and small squares - for access to the buildings, small-scale retail, eating and drinking or simply for spending time. The quarter is integrated into the overarching network of routes in the city center between the main train station, Westenhellweg and Marktplatz or Hansaplatz.

B - Mixed Use

The use of the buildings and floors will be mixed. Small, adaptable stores, cafés and restaurants will be created on the first floors, which can be extended to the first floor if required. Commercial uses will also dominate the first floor - offices, doctors and the like. The basement brings the buildings together under one floor and forms a continuous storey for parking spaces, technical rooms and other ancillary areas.

C - Sustainability

The use of materials, an efficient energy concept, short distances, the multi-layered linking of individual private and public mobility, social and cultural acceptance and other sustainability aspects are developed from the outset in a multi-professional team and brought together in an overall concept. A key starting point for us is the conceptual integration of an accessible green backdrop. As a structural break, it separates the floors with commercial use from those with residential use. It runs through the buildings, the courtyards, becomes denser at selected edges, recesses or terraces and gathers as a roof garden with bridges connecting all the buildings - a multi-storey park designed for the residents of these buildings.

D - Mobility

The group of buildings on Amiens Square is located in the immediate vicinity of Dortmund's main railway station with a variety of regional and national connections as well as direct access to inner-city public transport with buses and the S-Bahn. We will combine these options with a concept that ensures individual mobility - through an internal sharing system for e-bikes and cars that are available to residents. We expect to be able to at least halve the number of parking spaces required in this way. The remaining parking space requirement will be covered in the basement.

Concrete Glass Hybrid Infrastructure Living Masonry Mixed Office Public Retail Steel Wood

Data

Study

2017

Address

Kampstraße 37 - 39,
Hansastraße 5
44137 Dortmund
Germany

House at MIR

Gelsenkirchen

With its wedge-shaped cubature and variety of uses, the Haus am MIR mediates between the public use of the “Musiktheater im Revier - MIR” and the adjacent residential development to the east of Schalker Strasse. In terms of space and design, the new building frames and accentuates the current, very heterogeneous “non-space” on the east side of the MIR.

The recessed first floor is integrated into the public space through its transparency. This effect is reinforced by a homogeneously designed theater forecourt surface that incorporates the new building. An independent, highly recognizable urban space is created between the different uses.

Concrete Glass Hybrid Infrastructure Mixed Office Public Retail Steel

Data

Completion

1997

Address

Kennedyplatz 14
45881 Gelsenkirchen

Client

Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen

Competition Institute of the Fire Department NRW

Münster

The main site of the IdF derives its quality from its valuable tree population, but above all from its size. The existing building structure that dominates today does not reveal this size. We want to make this open space tangible as a landscape space for the people who will be trained here over several weeks. It should be a campus that allows easy orientation and where it is easy to get into conversation with others. It should allow privacy without being a barracks and at the same time be open to the public without ignoring security requirements. We are preserving all the trees and buildings whose appearance can enrich the character of the future site.

The urban figure follows the orientation of the site, the trees and the development. The gate is located at the S/E corner with a good view of the entrance, the shuttle stop, the pedestrian access, the underground parking garage entrance, the campus with its open spaces and the foyer/reception with hotel.

On the opposite side of the garden, the teaching rooms are lined up next to each other in three pavilions - with inner courtyards for differentiated lighting, a three-storey gallery facing the campus - transitory areas for vertical and horizontal access, informal areas for breaks and exchanges, partly integrated as loggias with storey-high segmental doors (glass panels) that open the gallery to the garden. The pavilion group ends with a single-storey, approx. 7.0 m high building, the restaurant. It is oriented both outwards, towards the gastronomic public, and inwards, towards the event space and the campus.

The entire pavilion group with gallery is aligned parallel to the building edges of lecture hall building C and is thus positioned a few degrees off-center to the other buildings. The interior garden thus opens up as an inviting gesture from Wolbecker Strasse towards the canal.

Material + Construction

All new buildings are built in timber construction - hotels made of room modules, all other buildings as skeleton construction with timber frame facades, glass facades or segmental doors (gallery, restaurant) for optimal open space connection and ventilation.

Open space concept

The basic urban design figure is interpreted flexibly and according to the situation: While a striking group of existing trees in the south forms the address, an urban joint of thinned-out trees in the north creates a visual axis to the canal. There is also a beer garden on this axis, which is also accessible to visitors and the neighborhood. The resulting diagonal promenade divides the campus into a meadow and a water area of the “Feuersee”. The latter is a retention basin as well as a connecting, calming and stimulating landscape element. The identity-forming trees on the large meadows will be preserved and their function as park space will be strengthened by a variety of new planting. A “piazza” will be created between the restaurant and the lecture hall building (C) as a central event location.

Hotel Mixed Public Wood

Data

Competition

2020

Address

Wolbecker Str. 23
48155 Münster
Deutschland

Organizer

Institute of the Fire Department NRW
Münster

Mühlengrund district

Building

Construction

Facade

Data

Completion

Address

Client

Partner

Related projects

New Building On Aktienstraße

Olpe 39

Conversion + Renovation Office Complex

Decathlon

Densification at RWI 4

Loretto Terraces

LorettoLoretto

Data

Preliminary building application

Address

Client

Related projects

Competition Urban Center

Spreestudio Clubhaus

Conversion of former RAG high-rise building

The New Leitz

Hafenhaus

Data

Completion

Address

Partner

-

Related projects

Residential Building Van-Galen-Straße

Competition Stadion Union Berlin

Wulf-Hefe-Gallery

Competition Museum of Bavarian History

@55 House Of Business

Data

Completion

Address

Client

Related projects

House Bergermann

Janke Robotics Technologies

Conversion + Renovation Office Complex

F40 – House of Business Friedrichstraße

F40 – House of Business Friedrichstraße

Awards

DGNB Gold pre-certification

Label "best architects 12"

Iconic Awards

The German Lighting Design-Prize

Data

Completion

Address

Client

Partner

Related projects

Competition Volkswohl Bund Insurance

@55 House Of Business

Urban Densification Study Nordhafenquartier

Conversion of former RAG high-rise building

Porsche Center

Data

Completion

Address

Client

Related projects

House at Lake Wandlitz

Friedrich-List-Platz

Dance School “S”

Competition Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs

Airporthotel Berlin

Façade

Building physics, construction, production and maintenance costs of the façade

Color Scheme

Data

Completion

Address