Berlin, Germany
At first glance, Tchoban Voss architects seem to have designed two similar office buildings in Seestrasse at the Wedding district in Berlin but after careful examination one can perceive the differences between them in terms of architectural composition.
This project was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Two seven-story office buildings of the same size were built on the previously undeveloped site at Seestrasse 65-66 in Berlin-Wedding as an extension to the commercial location of the listed Osram-Hoefe.
Both buildings were erected in reinforced concrete skeleton construction with load-bearing facades and an inner column grid.
The normal stories of the building sections were given different beige and colorful facades made of clinker brickwork with differentiated divisions.
The building section on the right-hand side of the street was provided with a two-story base zone and a three-story, vertically structured central area, to which the two-story roof area with titanium zinc pitched roof is connected.
The building on the left also has a two-story base area, but above it is a four-story central area with glazed, large-format windows in segmental arches as a reference to early industrial modernism.
This part of the building was given a staggering story with a flat roof.
Following the Berlin building tradition, the courtyard sides have a reduced design, with smaller window openings and a composite thermal insulation system facade with clinker brick slips in the same color spectrum as the street facades.
Both houses are accessible from Seestrasse.
From the courtyard side, there is the possibility of direct access to the staircases.
This access route also serves as an entrance to the courtyard-side car park and as a fire brigade access road.
Each of the two buildings has a centrally located, external staircase with a double flight of stairs.
The ground floors of both buildings can be reached barrier-free from the street and courtyard side via the single-story lobbies.
Well-dimensioned passenger lifts ensure barrier-free access to all floors of both buildings.
These lifts are also accessible from the underground car park.
With the construction of the new office building at Seestrasse, the areas facing the street were also redesigned.
Vegetation areas with tree and shrub plantings lend character to the inner courtyard.
In addition, 64 above-ground car parking spaces and 32 bicycle stands were created here.
Project: Seestrasse 65-66
Architects: Tchoban Voss Architekten GmbH
Client: Withheld
Contractor: Ed. Züblin AG Direktion Nord Bereich Brandenburg/Sachsen-Anhalt
Photographers: Klemens Renner
