7 April 2022 By Florian Heilmeyer. Photography by Jan Bitter

Commissioned, planned and constructed in barely 18 months, this new building in Berlin bucks the trend for German government projects being delayed and over-budget. Florian Heilmeyer visited it

At the end of December 2021, when this latest block of offices for the German parliament was handed over to its users, there was amazement and relief all round. The project was completed on time and even stayed within its budget of 70 million euros. The ‘Luisenblock’ thus created an unprecedented anomaly in Germany’s recent tradition of delivering public buildings late and over-budget. An anomaly that came as even more of a surprise given this building had to be built and planned with unprecedented speed, yet still offer a distinct take on sustainability.

The prime reason for the need for speed was the tardiness of Germany’s parliament. Since 2013, the number of German MPs has been increasing due to the continual growth of so-called Überhangmandate [extra seats awarded to each party’s tally to ensure this reflects the proportion of the national vote gained]. As a result, the new parliament as elected in 2021 now numbers 736 MPs, compared with the previous tally of 598. This has also meant a sharp increase in the demand for office space since every MP comes with an office of about three to four staff.

After surveying many other options, the decision to build a new office block was only finally taken in 2019 – with the next election already on the horizon. Therefore, the public tender required a building of 400 new offices to be built and planned within 28 months. The tender also made it very clear that largely prefabricated, modular construction would be preferred, as it offered the best hope of finishing the project in time for the next election.

The tender was open to bidding consortia that consisted of a private developer, an architect and a construction company. In May 2020, the commission was awarded to Primus developments, Berlin-based Sauerbruch Hutton Architects and Kaufmann Bausysteme, an Austrian specialist in timber construction.

Planning started at full speed, and construction on site began just five months later. In parallel, Kaufmann set up a temporary prefabrication facility for the construction of the wooden modules in an empty Berlin industrial hangar (yes, Berlin still has some of these). Indeed the derelict site had been used prior to 1989 by one of East Germany’s largest concrete plants, producing prefab concrete modules for the infamous Plattenbauten social housing. With this small plant for wooden prefab modules it seems like the next evolutionary step towards a more ecologically responsible building industry has been symbolically taken.

By April 2021, the factory was working at full capacity. On each working day, six massive modules of spruce CLT were loaded and transported to site. Transportation of these was only possible in the evenings to avoid the city’s rush hours, with the modules installed into place over the first part of the night – as, thanks to the largely prefabricated system, noise could be kept to a minimum. In any case, the inner-city plot where this building stands is not exactly a quiet backwater, given it sits next to Berlin’s most heavily used urban rail track.

Noise reduction also plays a key role in the architectural design – along with the size of the modules, which were defined by the maximum load a truck could take. Sauerbruch Hutton accepted this as a given and arranged the modules in a large H-shaped plan that transforms a typical Berlin building block around a closed courtyard into a block that opens to the north and south.

The main entrance points southwards to the buildings of Berlin’s government district around the Reichstag. The northern courtyard, however, is closed by a seven-storey, open wall of glass which is held by a metal framework, almost as basic as construction scaffolding. This glass wall reduces the inner-city noise while still allowing views and light through. It doubles, too, as a fire escape route and outdoor space and smoking area for staff.

From the outside, one can’t tell that 75 percent of this building is actually made of wood. The architects’ decision to wrap the modular construction in a weatherproof shell of recycled aluminium mean it doesn’t reveal its wooden heart. ‘A timber façade would have been possible,’ says architect Matthias Sauerbruch on a tour through the building. Indeed, the practice had already worked with both the developer and the building company on another joint project built just three years earlier: ‘Woodie’, a large student apartment block in Hamburg of 371 prefabricated wooden modules with a timber façade.

‘But the setting in Hamburg though was a different one,’ explains Sauerbruch. ‘Here we all agreed that for a German government office building in this specific location in the government district in inner-city Berlin, a timber façade would perhaps just be one step too far.’ After all, the team also wanted to win the tender. ‘In the end, we were extremely happy to win with a proposal for a timber structure, given most other competitors were still proposing the same old steel-and-concrete.’

From the outside, one can’t tell that 75 percent of this building is actually made of wood

The result is thus a modular wooden building, that neither shows its modularity nor its wooden-ness to the outside. The façade shines with the coy silver of the aluminium, accentuated by vertical panels of coloured glass that cover in each office module. There is surprise and a ‘wow’ effect when you enter the building to discover a wooden world inside, where timber is omnipresent across walls, ceilings, floors and furniture. The only exception is the central staircase and elevator shafts, which are essentially constructed of concrete, although a thin layer of fireproof timber clads the stair balustrades.

There’s one further surprise in the very old-fashioned floor layouts that line up rows of small single offices along internal corridors. Matthias Sauerbruch explains that this came from another requirement of the brief: that as the government didn’t know who would finally be using the new offices, they asked initially for separate offices that could later be combined. So Sauerbruch Hutton has adjusted the modular system accordingly: while providing single boxes, each is fitted with a door that connects it with adjacent room. This series of doors create a ‘secret inner passage’ in parallel to the corridor.

But future users have another option, too. Thanks to the integrated wooden beams, no partition wall is load-bearing. So, once the users have rolled up and discover they fancy an open office landscape instead, the walls between the offices can be removed easily. Given the obvious improvement in the quality of the inner office spaces that the removal of the walls would provide, this seems a highly likely scenario – especially in a city that has a certain expertise in tearing down walls.

A series of doors create a ‘secret inner passage’ in parallel to the corridor

To the outer façade, this possible opening of the inner office landscape would not bring any change. Indeed, when passing this building on the adjacent elevated track of the Berlin S-Bahn, constructed alongside the railway viaduct over the last 30 years. Even the colours are of such modest tones that they don’t make this building stand out at all. Only if you take a close look you’ll notice the difference.

‘It is almost like a Trojan Horse,’ says Sauerbruch. ‘I think it adds a decent lightness and humour as well as an appropriate modesty to a surrounding that is coined by heavy, monumental buildings of stone and concrete, built for eternity. Maybe this one says: Don’t take it all too seriously.’

But this chameleon effect doesn’t decrease the architectural qualities of the Luisenblock. It is still a quiet, but remarkable, piece of architecture. Amid all the hubbub around, you have to listen very closely to hear it whispering: Yes, we can! We can change the usual ways of the construction industry. Even here, in the middle of Berlin and on a public building project that had to be built in no time.

In addition to the sustainability aspect and time-saving production, notwithstanding the groundbreaking technology, it was important to us to integrate the building into the genius loci. The building adopts the height and volumes of the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus opposite and completes the edge of the buildings towards the elevated railway line with a glass volume. The restrained silver façade cladding matches the exposed concrete of the neighbouring houses of parliament; coloured glass panels in the windows discreetly

Both governance and the fight against climate change are serious matters, so it is all the more important to provide spaces for those who work on these issues that remind us of the diversity and beauty of life. Matthias Sauerbruch, director and partner, Sauerbruch Hutton

Building with timber modules guarantees a high degree of circularity. The materials for the building were very consciously selected according to the criteria of sustainability and resource conservation, and we largely avoided cladding and composite materials wherever possible. Sibylle Bornefeld, project manager and partner, Sauerbruch Hutton

The modular building not only impresses with its efficiency and sustainability, but also excels in architectural and urban planning terms. The building will fill its place in the parliamentary district with great naturalness. The federal government's exemplary role in modular construction is hereby made evident. Petra Wesseler, president of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

We have bid farewell to the misery of conventional construction. Timber modular construction stands for the logical transformation towards an innovative alternative: fast, serial, digital and thus precise, ecological and independent of weather conditions. Lorenz Nagel, Primus Developments

Start of planning May 2020 Start on site October 2020 Completion December 2021 Gross internal floor area 15,900m2 Procurement route Two-stage public procurement procedure Construction cost €70 million Architect Sauerbruch Hutton Client Deutscher Bundestag Structural engineer Wetzel & von Seht, Hamburg M&E consultant Drees & Sommer, Stuttgart QS Domann Consulting Engineers Landscape consultant Sinai Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin Main contractors Primus developments, Hamburg; Kaufmann Bausysteme, Reuthe, Vorarlberg CAD software used MicroStation

Tags Berlin Modular Sauerbruch Hutton

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