Luisenblock Office Building in Berlin
- Julia Liese
To a major degree, the new administrative building for the German federal parliament, the Bundestag, consists of stacked timber modules - which doesn't become apparent when viewed from the exterior. The playfully designed facade consisting of aluminium and glass panels might as well conceal a conventional reinforced concrete structure. Considering that the building is located in the centre of Berlin, where concrete and stone are the predominant building materials, the prefabricated lightweight construction type also seems very unusual. Given that the Bundestag urgently required more office space for representatives and their staff, the decision to use a construction type based on timber modules appears logical. This decision originated in a tendering procedure in which the bidding consortium consisting of project developer Primus and timber manufacturer Kaufmann Bausysteme was awarded the contract based on the design by Sauerbruch Hutton. Within this constellation the three partners had already realised the student housing project Woodie, also based on modular timber construction (Detail 4.2018). The prefabricated construction type allowed reducing the time required for planning and execution. The construction work on site began only five months after the tendering procedure. Another 15 months later the building was ready for occupation. The budget comprised 70 million euro.
