COMPETITION ORGANISER
GERMAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, DESSAU
LOCATION
BERLIN
PROJECT TYPE
CONVERSION AND EXTENSION
TEAM
GLASS KRAMER LÖBBERT
COMPETITION
IMPLEMENTATION COMPETITION
The Dahlem research campus for the German Environment Agency will receive a new, more inviting public image, which was urgently required. The main entrance is situated at the widely visible tower, in a key position in the central avant-corps, thereby defining and consolidating the building’s symmetry.
The historical laboratory building has a highly functional, robust and convertible structure. Despite its age, it anticipated the demands of sustainable architecture: even after a century, the building can still continue to be used with acceptable effort. The new laboratory wing’s structure is defined by the existing development.
Access routes, communally used functions and prestigious spaces in the existing architecture are thereby also activated in a coherent, barrier-free way for the new building. The new laboratory wing complements the incomplete Wilhelminian building in an appropriate and natural manner. Its exterior appearance is autonomous, while respecting the older building fabric. The resulting highly user-friendly, flexibly zonable spaces have a regular, simple structure.