Designed by LOVE architecture and urbanism, the main goal of their winning proposal for the 50Hertz Headquarters in Berlin was to develop an innovative, transparent, open headquarters for the company that above all flows from inside to outside. The focus became to create flexible,versatile, and unique working environments, which are traversed by spacious outdoor spaces in the form of terraces, balconies and atriums. More images and architects' description after the break.
The site is particularly noteworthy due to its prominent location in Berlin’s inner city:the adjacent “Kultur-Campus” is currently being developed with the existing Museum of contemporary art in the Hamburg train station.The site is also within close proximity of the main train station, which is the most important public long-distance and local transportation hub in Berlin; the parliament and government district which stretches along the Spreebogen and includes the Federal Chancellery, the German Bundestag, and the Reichstag and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which is currently under construction.
The future“50Hertz Netzquartier” is a delicate building which incorporates the highly volumetric language of the master plan and reflects it in an overlay of different structures, consisting of the exterior supporting system(net),the horizontal rhythm of the floor levels and the interior yellow cores and staircases.They guide the view into thedepth and lead to a dematerialization of the building. Thus, the new Netzquartier is released from the thought that this is a conventional office building and highlights its holistic sculptural approach.At night,this is additionally accentuated by the lighting of the staircases and the individual pillars.
The working culture oft he 50Hertz energy provider is based on a firm belief in the productive potential of informal, flexible and creative working. To meet the demands of such a philosophy, a working space must combine the practical needs of the business world with a sensuous, energetic element–something diverse and stimulating. This calls for an office environment that offers a dynamic interplay of concentration, interaction and relaxation. The resulting design offers a physical working environment that supports the transition to a more open corporate culture founded on the principles of dialogue and teamwork.
Offsetting individual façade elements toward the building’s center augments the simple, flexible basic structure with a variety of open spaces that fluidly merge the interior and the exterior. These variable- sized gardens provide informal outdoor communication spaces (e.g.for outdoor meetings, brainstorming) and also serves as fresh-air recreation spaces for unwinding faster after tiring meetings. The deep building traversed by outdoor work spaces enables the creation of a wide variety of office layouts, each of which offers a different solution for the demands of workflow, job quality and working atmosphere.
Each layout features a different blend of working areas, informal communication zones and garden zones (outdoor work spaces), which results in a wide variety of unique working environments.Thus, the occupants of each floor or department can tailor the working environment to their specific needs or desires. The individual levels of the building areconnected by central atriums,which penetrate the building conically, both physically(i.e.via staircases) and visually (i.e. via natural light), thereby making the building a homogenous, multi-level whole.
Architects: LOVE architecture and urbanism
Location: Berlin, Germany
Client: 50Hertz Transmission GmbH
Total Area (without underground garage): approx. 16,000 m²
Office Space: 11,070 m²
Conference Area: 807 m²
Daycare Center: 153 m²
