Barkow Leibinger

Barkow Leibinger
Schillerstraße 94, D–10625 Berlin
T +49(0)30 315712 -0 F -29
info@barkowleibinger.com
 / 

Office Building "Bertha Berlin"

The nine-story office building on Bertha-Benz-Straße was completed as the fourth and final component of the “Lehrter Stadtquartier,” master planned by O.M. Ungers in 1994, directly southwest of Berlin’s main railway station. The design corresponds to the existing three buildings of the complex, for which clear directives were given for the volumetric form, height and materiality. Following these guidelines, the building has a “static” and planer façade facing the city, while the two façades facing the center of the quadrant are articulated by folded surfaces. Additionally, it is segmented into a three-part program of base, body, and penthouse. The generous floor height of the first two levels offers space for two lobbies, several retail spaces, while the upper seven floors provide office rooms and a terrace on the ninth floor.

Above the transparent pedestal, narrow vertical fins of “Sellenberger Muschelkalk,” a light-colored shell limestone rooted in the Berlin building tradition, form a curtain wall of veil-like lightness: varying in depth, the fins stagger over 3 divisions per floor height, a pattern that forms a diagonal incremental gradient like a fabric cladding that lightens the heaviness of the overall building volume.

Project Information

Architects
Barkow Leibinger, Berlin
Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger


Team
Klaus Reintjes (Project Architect), Ayax Abreu, Marian Beschoner, Ulrich Fuchs, Cynthia Grieshofer, Ina Reinecke, Ruwen Rimpau, Anna Saeger, Konrad Scholz, Morihide Seki, Antje Steckhan, Ludwig Uphues

 

Program

Office, Retail, Gastronomy, Parking

 

Location

Berlin, Germany

 

Size

ca. 18.000 sqm renting space/25.000 sqm BGF

 

Construction

2014 - 2016

 

Sustainability standard

DGNB Gold Certification

 

Client | Investor

Bertha Berlin GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture between Hamburg’s Becken Development GmbH and the HanseMerkur insurance group

General Contractor

W. Markgraf GmbH & Co KG, Berlin, Deutschland

 

Construction Management  

Witte Projektmanagement GmbH, Berlin, Deutschland

 

Structural Engineer

RSP Remmel+Sattler Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Berlin, Deutschland

 

Landscape Architect

Capatti Staubach, Berlin, Deutschland

 

Mechanical Engineering, Energy Performance, HVAC, Electrical Engineering

Reese Ingenieure GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, Deutschland

 

Building Physics

Werner Genest und Partner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Berlin, Deutschland

 

Façade Engineering

Priedemann Fassadenberatung GmbH, Großbeeren, Deutschland

 

Lighting Design

Bartenbach, Mainz, Deutschland

 

Photos

© Stefan Müller, Berlin

© Corinne Rose, Berlin