Playful Breaks
Competition (Winning)
Barkow Leibinger Architects
Summer 2021
Berlin, Germany
Many buildings make one - of many experiences. An eight-week-long competition asked for the design of an office headquarters building that forgoes the corporate model and becomes an informal, creative campus. As a team of three, we proposed a development that is composed of buildings staggered in height and outline to form a non-hierarchical and permeable, almost “infinite” campus. The basic figure allows areas to be coupled and interconnected in a particularly flexible manner, through the two interior courtyards which, like the roof terraces, invite people to meet, exchange ideas, and work informally. The center of the scheme is a natural part of the overarching ensemble, - not a structure differentiated formally, but through its positioning and inherent circulation. The taller eastern volumes form a protective barrier against the noise of the railway tracks, while inward side terraces down opening up views towards the mountains. Overall, the figural gradations and protrusions break down the building scale, thus ensuring – with all its independence – that the scheme is coherently integrated into its neighborhood.