The winner was Barkow Leibinger, which recently lost out to Frank Gehry in a competition to design a 150-meter tower on Alexander Platz. However, due to the fact that the Estrel Tower is located far from the historic center of Berlin, on the border of the periphery and the Neukölln district, it will be taller than the Gehry building: at 175 m, it will become the tallest building in the capital and the tallest hotel in Germany.
Estrel Tower will accommodate about 814 rooms, and its complex will also include an exhibition and congress center, an office building, a parking lot, a building with restaurants and a spa center - all of which will be interlocked but clearly legible. Architects Barkow Leibinger chose the triangle as the main motive: it defines the plans for new buildings - alone or doubling and forming a rhombus. Also, all buildings will have a sloping roof.
The complex will be placed between Sonnenalle Street and the canal, on the way from Schönefeld International Airport to the city center, so it will become a kind of gateway to Berlin. Nearby is the old Hotel Estrel with over 1000 rooms and a congress center. Despite its impressive size, it is now working at the limit of its capabilities, so a new case is necessary for it.
However, the owner of Estrel plans to compete not with other hotels in the German capital, but with the largest hotels in Europe: having entered the continental level, he is going to host the largest international congresses and exhibitions.
The second place in the competition for the Estrel Tower project was taken by schneider + schumacher, the third - by Meixner Schlüter Wendt. Honorable mentions were awarded to projects by Kleihues + Kleihues, sauerbruch hutton and Christoph Ingenhoven.
2nd place. Schneider + schumacher project
3rd place. Meixner Schlüter Wendt project
Honorable Mention. Kleihues + Kleihues project
Honorable Mention. Sauerbruch hutton project
Honorable Mention. Project by Christoph Ingenhoven
