Description

The office building, with its meandering kinks and splays, acts as an urban backbone shielding the residential quarter on the Stralau peninsula to the east from the noise of the busy railway viaduct and the traffic of the Kynaststraße. It occupies the site of the former Stralau glassworks, where bottles were produced until the 1990s. The conversion of the former industrial area was then already underway, and earlier proposals had also envisaged a long building bordering the railway line. The final development plan stipulated four to six storeys for the southern section and up to nine storeys for the northern section. The southern section was to be an open office structure, in line with the typology of Berlin’s commercial buildings.

Originally, the building was designed to house 90 individual office units of 400 m² each for use by start-ups. It was only far into the project that the investors requested the designers to plan instead for two large tenants – the “Digital Campus” of Deutsche Bahn and a federal authority. The originally envisaged “marketplace” of small shops and restaurants on the ground floor, designed to cater for the everyday needs of multiple tenants, had to be replanned to meet the security requirements of the two new tenants. The challenge was to find a formal response to the almost 300-metre-long site: the architects developed a linear system with multiple kinks that playfully exaggerate the slight curvature of the railway viaduct. The main section has six storeys with partially stepped-back rooftop storeys, while the northern end facing Rummelsburger Bucht rises to nine storeys, also with an additional staggered rooftop storey. The placement of the structure results in a space on the west side facing the 6-metre-high wall of the railway viaduct. This outdoor space is more than just a passageway and features graphically distinctive asphalt and green islands designed by the landscape architects Topotek 1. At the kinks in the building, extensive balconies emphasise the changes in direction, a product of the original intention to give each of the 90 office units an outdoor space.

On the east side, facing the road and residential district behind, is a raised concourse atop a plinth level that responds to the need to cater for high groundwater levels. A green ribbon of islands with sedges and grasses, as well as gingko trees, runs the length of this, but it is no longer accessible to the public for safety reasons. Only the seating on the steps to the upper level facing the water remains freely accessible. The ground level path runs between high fences, as the residential development is similarly closed off.

The building’s average depth of 20 metres and room height of 3.70 metres made it possible for the architects to develop a modulated façade cladding system. Drawing on the decorative cladding panels of Berlin’s commercial architecture from the early 20th century, it gives formal expression to the clarity of the structural frame. Through studies conducted in their own modelling workshop, the architects developed an outer shell that articulates a sense of depth by heightening the effect of light and shadow. Working together with NBK Keramik from the Lower Rhine region, the architects carried out numerous tests to create the desired effect with elements that could be produced at a reasonable cost. The deep curves in the elements made it necessary to include internal bars so that the elements could be placed upright in the firing kiln.

A thick layer of glaze creates a glassy, milky surface quality, and a second firing ensures increased resistance of the façade elements. As the ceramic cladding elements are vulnerable to impact damage, they are used only on the upper storeys to avoid damage through vandalism, except for the pillars alongside the driveway at the northern end of the building. Throughout the entire structure, Barkow Leibinger’s precise and clear aesthetics are palpable in the exposed concrete walls and the detailing, and the building responds to modern working patterns with flexible configurations that can accommodate working from home and varying work constellations.

Originally published in Bauwelt 8.2023, pp. 48-55, abridged and edited for Building Types Online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

 

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