Barkow Leibinger chosen to design Berlin's tallest high-rise tower

Barkow Leibinger won first place to design the new Estrel Tower Berlin. Standing at 175 meters (578 feet), the tower will be the tallest high-rise in Berlin to date.

Centrally located in the city, the tower and conference center will be built next to the historic Estrel Hotel and is expected to become a new landmark.

Scroll down further to read more about it.

Project description:

"Complimenting the existing Estrel Hotel, the largest in Germany, a new hotel tower and conference center will establish a new gateway to the center of Berlin from the soon to be completed Schönefeld International Airport."

"Located on the Sonnenalle at the intersection of the Ship Canal, S-Bahn and Autobahn the site is a threshold between the heterogeneous industrial/ residential periphery and the historical neighborhoods of Neukölln.

Free from the historical constraints of the center the project is an ensemble of elements revolving around the sloped silhouette of the tower with its roof terrace orienting to the city."

"In response to the existing Estrel Hotel and resembling the children’s game 'Tangram' the proposal is organized into a series of extruded triangulated volumes of different sizes and heights mediating the tower into the low-rise surrounding neighborhoods. This cascading family of forms, from high to low-scaled, radiates to form two strong orientations: to the street side (Sonnenallee) and to the water side (Ship Canal)."

"Functions are distributed into the different sized volumes including the hotel, an office building, park house, glass-roofed hotel entrance atrium, and the low-flat conference center. This programmatic clarity allows easy phasing variations, which is important for such a large scale development. A ground floor promenade begins with the hotel drop-off which continues into the hotel atrium and on to an arcade fronting the conference center.

Facades compliment the idea of “similar but distinct” building volumes and are articulated to enhance the verticality of the individual parts of the ensemble in metal and glass."

Project Credits:

Architects:  Barkow Leibinger, Berlin, Frank Barkow, Regine Leibinger 
Team:  Michael Ahlers, Martina Bauer, Ana Filipovic, Pierre Guérin, Nadja Jeske, Ki Jun Kim, Richard Sharam, Tyler Swingle, Patrick Unger, Lukas Weder, Jens Weßel, Leonie Woltermann Program:  Hotel, Offices, Event Spaces     
Client:  Estrel Hotel-Betriebs-GmbH    
Structural Engineer:  B+G Ingenieure Bollinger + Grohmann GmbH, Berlin    
Mechanical Engineer:  Rentschler und Riedesser, Filderstadt    
Energy Design:  Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Stuttgart    
Landscape:  Hager Partner AG, Berlin    
Elevator Consultant:  Jappsen Ingenieure GmbH, Berlin     
Traffic Consultant:  Ingenieurbüro Vössing Vepro GmbH, Berlin    
Fire Protection Consultant:  hhpBerlin, Ingenieure für Brandschutz GmbH, Berlin 
Model:  Monath + Menzel, Berlin 
Renderings:  bloomimages, Berlin

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