Moving grid. New construction of an office building by Tchoban Voss Architekten
17/03/2020.
[Prenzlauer Berg - Berlin] Germany
metalocus, HAMZA AYADI
metalocus, HAMZA AYADI
Description of project by Tchoban Voss Architekten
On the 464 m² corner site between Greifswalder Str. and Heinrich-Roller-Str. in the Berlin district of Pankow, Prenzlauer Berg, an office building was created whose expressive, lively main façade with its floor-to-ceiling, square grid structure of light architectural concrete prefabricated parts immediately strikes the eye.
The structure comprises six full storeys, which can be used per rental unit as flexible combinations of open-plan offices, individual offices, conference and meeting rooms as well as coworking spaces. On the ground floor there is an office unit with meeting areas and open-space workplaces. The top floor is set back by approx. 1.60m on the street side. The roof area, which is accessed via the 5th floor, is greened and partly designed as a roof terrace. The basement is intended for parking spaces for cars, bicycles and technical rooms.
The new building, which is used as a modern office business centre, follows the line of the building on the street side and connects to the fire walls of the neighbouring buildings while maintaining the spacing in the courtyard and exploiting the maximum building depth. All new building parts have flat roofs.
The street facade on the ground floor consists of large-format insulating glazing in mullion-transom construction. From the first to the fourth upper floor, the facade is constructed in a square grid of architectural concrete. The slightly twisted pillars and floor slab strips meet alternately at either a high or low point and form a coherent, dynamic, organic-flowing structure. At the high points of the grid structure, the facade protrudes 50cm above the building line. The inner courtyard facades were realized as plaster facades with circumferential window bands with metal railings. The roof area with its restrained glass facade forms the clear, calm end of the building.
Tchoban Voss Architekten is a German architecture firm, founded by Sergei Tchoban, Ekkehard Voss, that have developed construction projects all over Germany as well as in Russia, Turkey and the Arabian countries. They develop, draft, plan and build for both regional and international clients, in the public and private sector.
In addition to residential and business buildings, they focus on planning hotels, trade facilities, office complexes, leisure time facilities, schools, educational and social facilities, as well as reconstructions and revitalizations of historical monuments.
They have been providing all architectural services − from interior architecture to general planning − ever since they went into business.
Sergei Tchoban. Having got the architecture education in Saint Petersburg Sergei Tchoban successfully works in Germany since the beginning of 1990s. Since 1995 he has been running the Berlin office of bureau “nps tchoban voss”. Such significant buildings of Berlin as the cinema “Kubiks”, the gallery “Arndt”, complex “AquaDom”, synagogue in Muenstersche strasse and many other buildings and complexes in Berlin and other cities of Germany were realized upon his projects. In parallel with his work in Germany S. Tchoban has been actively designing in Russia since 2003. In 2006 through the merger with the bureau S. P. Project together with Sergey Kuznetsov co-founded the SPEECH architectural office and became its managing partner. In 2008, together with Sergey Kuznetsov he established the architectural magazine speech :. In 2009 he founded the Tchoban Foundation - Museum for Architectural Drawing.
Tchoban was the curator of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture two times: in 2010 he curated the project “Russia Factory” (together with Sergey Kuznetsov, Pavel Khoroshilov, Grigory Revzin), in 2012 – the project “i-city/i-land” (together with the commissary of the pavilion Grigory Revzin, co-curator Sergey Kuznetsov and Valery Kashirina), which was awarded with a Special Mention – the first time that Russia won an award at the Architectural Biennale. In 2013-2014, he headed a graduate studio at the Moscow School of Architecture. Since 2011 Sergei Tchoban has been a member of the City Planning Council of the Skolkovo Foundation. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Architectural Council of the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the City of Moscow.