Berlin, Germany
DSTRCT.Berlin by Gewers Pudewill is a mixed-used development for the future that features inspiring loft offices, co-working spaces, seating areas, and meeting rooms, as well as open areas and roof terraces for an up-and-coming, creative district in Berlin.
The site of what used to be the largest slaughterhouse and cattle yard in Europe right on Landsberger Allee in Berlin-Friedrichshain is finally being brought to a whole new level of life.
After the area lay dormant for 30 years, an innovative and inspiring district development is now gaining speed, which will completely reshape the historic site and allow it to take off into the architectural and economic future.
Centrally located in Berlin – close to Prenzlauer Berg and Alexanderplatz – a vital creative center is emerging, a cosmos of its own, a melting pot that will stand for a completely new working environment based on the model of the New York Meatpacking District.
The highlight of the project is the futuristic new building, a veritable cathedral of New Work, in which forward-looking, light-flooded workplaces for around 2,500 employees will be created on five floors.
The spacious glass facade of the new building forms the calm background for the smaller-scale monument halls.
Particularly impressive are the loggias eight meters high and bay windows twelve meters wide, which enliven and rhythmicize the building.
Behind this spectacular façade there are inspiring loft offices, co-working spaces, seating areas, meeting rooms as well as open areas and roof terraces, which as green oases make everyday work even more pleasant and productive.
In line with the mobility of tomorrow, there will be the largest bicycle garage in Berlin, equipped with electric charging stations, under the new building.
In this new, holistically networked quarter, the perfect framework conditions are created for thinking outside the box, as is typical of Berlin’s creative, technology and start-up scene.
Part of the DSTRCT.Berlin project are the refurbishment of halls of the former slaughterhouse.
In the four listed brick halls, which have been revitalized with attention to detail and supplemented by intermediate buildings, there is space for cafés, bars, fitness centers and shops for local retailers.
After 30 years of vacancy, decay and fire damage, new life was brought into the last remaining unrenovated halls of the former slaughterhouse, which are listed as historical monuments.
The refurbishment and structural-physical upgrading in line with the requirements of a listed building was equivalent to a complete new building in terms of technical and financial expenditure.
The result of the metamorphosis from slaughterhouse halls used on an industrial scale, built around the turn of the century, to today’s demands and expectations of modern office and special spaces with a historical connection speaks for itself.
The careful transformation of the buildings into the new phase of use, in which even individual graffiti were preserved as evidence of the (illegal) interim use typical of Berlin, shows once again the importance of preserving and continuing to use historic building fabric.
The halls are not only suitable for the new uses, they give the themes of work, communication, identity and diversity a very unique and distinctive dimension.
The installation of new gallery levels in the halls, the careful accentuation and exposure of the structural features of the original halls, and the structuring of the large areas create a playground for the users that allows for identity-creating, future-oriented office uses with a high degree of flexibility.
Project: DSTRCT.Berlin
Architects: Gewers Pudewill
Project Leader: Tilman Richter-von Senfft
Client: HB Reavis (UBX 2 Objekt Berlin S.à.r.l.)
Photographers: HG Esch
