taz.Neubau

Berlin, Germany

Photo © Rory Gardiner

Drawing © E2A

Office Buildings

Architects: E2A / Piet Eckert und Wim Eckert / Architekten

Location: Friedrichstrasse 21, 10969 Berlin, Germany
Year: 2018
Client: taz - die tageszeitung - Verlagsgenossenschaft eG - Berlin; vertreten durch die GF Andreas Bull und Karl-Heinz Ruch
Team: Project: Piet Eckert, Wim Eckert with Claudio Aquino and Mireya Sanchez Gomez, Felix Yaparsidi, Yusuke Ota, Corbin Jenkins; Competition: Piet Eckert, Wim Eckert with André Passos, Alexander Struck, Tobias Weise, Bojana Miskeljin, Philip Milkowski, Rickey

After 25 years at the Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse across from Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin daily newspaper moves a block further south. The purchase of the plot Friedrichstrasse 20-22 allows the taz to unite its roughly 250 employees in the future media quarters next to the Bessel Park under one roof again.

In its prominent corner location, the new taz building must mediate between the traditional Berlin block and the solitary buildings from the period of the IBA. Our design combines the urban block and the corner: we adopt the height of a typical Berlin eave and continue the block; a subtle setback of the façade facing Friedrichstrasse creates a clearly accentuated entrance. Street, corner, and courtyard thus become the urban leitmotiv and convert the potential building envelope of the existing development plan into a simple and concise volume.