Kusus + Kusus architekten’s BBI-Info Tower at the Capital Airport in Berlin is designed to be a recognizable element for the airport that will “serve the whole region and far beyond the boundaries of the construction site beyond.” Rising 31 meters, the tower is a welcoming sight for visitors approaching by land or passengers on plane. Programmatically, the building is a observation tower that provides views of the “growing” new airport complex which is currently being developed. By ascending to the top, the visitor is then roughly at the level of the surrounding construction cranes and gains new insight into the construction activities.
More images and more about the tower after the break.
Inside, a massive reinforced concrete elevator core carries the weight of the entire structure, allowing the exterior envelope to portray a feeling of delicacy and lightness. Steel spiral stairs cantilever off the core with intermediate landings that provide areas of rest during ascent and descent, as well as views of the site through the semi-transparent envelope. Upon reaching the top, there are two observation decks, an encased platform and an open deck.
On the exterior, the tower is a series of isosceles triangles that, on each level, are rotated six degrees counter-clockwise. This results in an unusual and striking form that creates different perspectives from each angled viewed. The idea of dynamic twisting can be rationalized as an architectural interpretation of wind or motion, as associated with the airport.
The exterior, a white ETFE membrane, allows a certain degree of visual transparency during the day and creates a light tower at night, as different colors burst through the translucent skin. The tower’s spatial impression is the effect of the membrane stretched between the triangular steel frame.
As a parti, the tower is the simple relationship between a round core and spiral stair rotated within the triangular frame of the facade.
As seen on Architekten24. All photography courtesy of Schwarz Arquitekturfotografie
BBI infotower (Airport Berlin) Berlin, Germany 2007
