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  • New headquarters for two federal ministries in Berlin

    New headquarters for two federal ministries in Berlin

    Organize. Preserve. Renew. The new head offices of two federal ministries. Our complex revitalization of two buildings with long-standing histories in the former banking quarter in Berlin’s Mitte district. Transformation. Modernization. Preservation. From the competition through to turn-key. Heritage preservation and the power of transformation: fostering dialog between the old and the new.

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  • WIKA Innovation Center

    WIKA Innovation Center

    How did we use good architecture to promote R & D ? We connected the workstations and the production facilities while creating clear structures and lines of vision. The challenge with this project was to wed production facilities and R & D in a new ensemble, as each has its own special requirements. We succeeded in combining all usages to form a striking CI for the market leader in pressure and temperature measuring technology.

  • Transformation

    Transformation

    Transformation – preserving and adapting buildings to current requirements makes sense in many instances both from an ecological and economic perspective. The aim is always to upgrade the economic, technical and aesthetic value of a property; this typically means that a wide variety of aspects relating to building law, energy, statics but also constructional and con-servation aspects need to be considered. Such work requires both extensive technical know-how and creativity to attune these various requirements with one another and ultimately find the best possible solution.

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  • Living

    Living

    The digital world is changing city dwellers’ life styles and their notion of society. New living typologies are needed in order to respond to this trend. Hybrid buildings that combine housing, work spaces, hospitality, wellness and service facilities, are just as much in demand as new forms of collective homes, so–called Co-Living. Residents’ needs for private and personal spaces need to be reconciled with areas for (communal) activities all under the single roof and with an intelligent footprint.

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  • Great Mosque

    Great Mosque

    The mosque complex, which faces Mecca, combines various cultural and religious facilities on the 26 hectare site. In 2008, our team won the international competition. Construction work on the Djamaâ el Djazaïr, Arabic for Great Mosque, began in 2011 and was completed in 2020.

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  • Gleis Park

    Gleis Park

    How do you create living space where there isn't any? With new sustainability: Housing instead of parking in the heart of Berlin. We have dismantled half of the multi-storey car park along the U2 tracks and made it habitable: the front end of the piano building was retained. In between we placed a 185-meter-long formation of four six-storey houses, which can be individually read as such due to the curved building shape. They flank the park and shield it from the tracks. This is how creative densification works: you make a parking garage habitable and create new living space in the city.

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News

  • Africa's largest mosque officially opened in Algiers 27.02.2024

    It is an extraordinary project: After the Islamic pilgrimage sites in Mecca and Medina, it is the third largest mosque in the world. At 265 meters tall, its minaret is higher than any other, while the Prayer Hall hosts up to 36,000 worshippers on religious festival days. The entire complex provides space for up to 120,000 visitors every day and, alongside the Prayer Hall and the minaret, comprises further facilities such as a museum with a research center for Islam, a conference center, a library, a theological college, apartments and infrastructure buildings. The mosque was designed by German planners: the consortium of KSP Engel and KREBS+KIEFER International. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Algerian President both attended the contract signing – the official launch of the planning work – back in July 2008. Realization of this major project covering a gross floor area (GFA) of around 400,000 square meters in total was entrusted to China’s biggest construction company, the “China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC for short), which acted as general contractor. Aside from the dome, the major landmark of the complex and easily visible from afar is the minaret, which soars to 265 meters. Through a series of major projects, Algeria’s government is aiming to make its country’s modernization and rejuvenation visible. The Grand Mosque is one such project, alongside universities, schools, infrastructure and transport facilities, including the new airport in Algiers. The Great Mosque represents the formation of a new Maghreb architecture with international resonance. Meanwhile, the structure is even adorned by one of the country’s banknotes (1,000-dinar note), the symbol of the city.
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    Photo: Wassil Badaoui

  • 1st prize for high-rise building at Nuremberg railway station 25.01.2024

    We won 1st prize in the realisation competition with our high-rise design for the “Bahnhofsplatz redevelopment” in Nuremberg. On behalf of Sontowski & Partner, Erlangen, a 50 metre high-rise building with a 6 to 7-storey wing is to be built on the western edge of the square. Together with the Tafelhof-Palais hotel tower opposite, they will form an urban bracket for the railway station. In addition to office space, serviced flats for business travellers and visitors are also planned. Instead of distributing the two uses across the tower and wing building, we have stacked the office and residential uses. In this way, we were able to minimise the circulation areas: both uses share a common, central circulation core. The jury particularly appreciated the fact that the sculptural façade design gives the tower, which characterises the cityscape, a unique selling point. Sculpturally protruding pilaster strips visually unite two storeys and emphasise the vertical orientation of the high-rise building. Despite the uniform façade design, the layering of office and residential use is discreetly recognisable thanks to the pilaster strips tapering towards the top.

  • 3rd prize for the design of the central canteen at Justus Liebig University Giessen 11.12.2023

    We are delighted to have won 3rd prize in the competition for the new central canteen on the campus of Justus Liebig University in Giessen. The jury did not award a 2nd prize. They recognised the compact, well-proportioned and structured building and the clearly structured floor plans in our design. According to the jury’s judgement, our design is also characterised by a significantly lower energy requirement and lower costs compared to the field of participants. In addition to catering for around 10,000 students, the new canteen in Giessen serves as a central, communicative meeting point and important hub of the campus area. Despite the compactness of the building, our design creates an open meeting place that impresses with its modern timber construction and energy-efficient operation. The wooden supporting structure also creates a pleasant ambience for the light-flooded guest area.

  • New art museum opens in Shenzhen 08.11.2023

    The Shenzhen Art Museum (new venue) was ceremoniously opened at the beginning of November 2023. The cultural complex is now complete and forms the first in a series of new, important cultural facilities being built for the city of Shenzhen. The opening ceremony for the city’s new landmark was attended by representatives of art and culture from China, France, South Korea, and Thailand. The opening exhibition is the largest show to date of the works of Berlin-based, internationally active artist Shiota Chiharu. We designed the museum as an exhibition hall with a truly international appeal, one that brings art exhibitions and an art collection, cultural exchanges, and the promotion of up-and-coming talents together under a single roof. The new art museum boasts a total built surface area of 66,000 square meters and can welcome up to 6,000 visitors a day. It features 18 exhibition halls, a zone for culture shows, several lecture halls, a reading room for art books, a restaurant, and other multifunctional spaces. More information.
    Photo: Rawvision

  • 2nd prize Location concept HELLA headquarters in Lippstadt 18.09.2023

    At the Lippstadt site, HELLA is pursuing the gradual transformation of the company headquarters into a contemporary, sustainable campus in the heart of the city. The campus is to be further developed into a progressive company location, taking into account HELLA’s urban planning and architectural requirements. Our design includes the creation of various neighbourhood squares on the campus site, which are oriented towards the city centre, Rixbecker Strasse and Lippe/Grüner Winkel. With their individual design, function and orientation, they form the identity-forming elements of our design. A “green heart” in the centre of the campus with seating around a water area provides attractive meeting and recreational opportunities for employees.

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Lisa Romswinkel
Head of Public Relations

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Sebastian Tokarz
Head of Public Relations

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