The famous publishing house, which publishes the most influential social and political magazine in Germany "Der Spiegel", has been based in Hamburg since 1952, and over the past half century has managed to grow out of its high-rise on Brandstwyth Street.
An international architectural competition for the best design of the new headquarters was announced in 2006, and in 2008, construction began on a building invented by Henning Larsen in the HafenCity area.
The complex, whose total area is 50 thousand square meters, consists of two fully glazed volumes installed on a single platform. In the plan, the buildings are trapezoidal and slightly turned away from each other - so the two horns are usually directed in different directions in order to reach the largest possible audience.
The space between them has been turned into a new city square, part of which is connected by a bridge to the embankment, and part of it serves as an entrance area directly to office buildings.
The main facades of both buildings have giant niches recessed into the buildings to the depth of several windows. As conceived by the architects, these openings could symbolize television screens, but since the Spiegel Group specializes in paper and electronic media, the edges of the niches are smoothed out and more like open magazine pages.
In addition, each building has an atrium designed, also in the shape of a trapezoid. Public zones and meeting rooms are concentrated around this core, and numerous bridges-ladders are thrown from floor to floor, visually complicating the space.
The interiors of the public areas of the headquarters are designed in the traditional key for modern Scandinavian design - they are dominated by white and honey tones of natural wood.
The project of the Spiegel Group's new office was made in accordance with the strictest "green" standards - the complex practically does not consume energy from city networks: a well-thought-out natural ventilation system made it possible to use only single air conditioners, and solar panels on both roofs provide the buildings with the required number of kilowatts.
A. M.
