Atelier Gardens Haus 1

Together with co-architects HS-Architekten, MVRDV has turned a dated office building from the 1990s into an eye-catching entrance marker for Atelier Gardens in Berlin. Now bright yellow, the building is completed with a new living roof, and a sustainable timber rooftop pavilion and terrace, accessible via a grand external staircase.

HAUS 1 is the second project completed by MVRDV within Atelier Gardens, following last year’s reopening of TON 1, a historic film studio originally built in the 1920s. Situated at the southern edge of Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, the masterplan transforms the campus of the Berliner Union Film Ateliers (BUFA) as part of a vision to expand the site’s user base beyond filmmakers to encompass all forms of ‘change makers’, including impact organisations and individuals with a focus on climate activism and social justice.

While TON 1 required a sensitive renovation, HAUS 1 called for a bolder touch. Originally built in 1997, the office building contributed little to the character of the campus. Given its location next to the entrance of Atelier Gardens, as well as height that makes it visible from the former airfield of Tempelhof, the decision was made to transform the building into an iconic presence on the neighbouring Oberlandstraße and an emblematic symbol of the transformation of the BUFA campus.

“The newly transformed HAUS 1 is more than a gateway to this unique campus devoted to impact,” says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs. “It is a representation of the Atelier Gardens community and their commitment to chart a different vision of society – one that’s optimistic, yet radical and innovative. With this second project in our masterplan, we join them on this mission and invite more people to follow.”

The most immediately obvious sign of this change is the building’s colour. Once plain white, the building is now a sunshine yellow all over, drawing attention to the campus from both near and far. Once visitors enter the campus, they will immediately encounter another clear sign: from the central plaza of Atelier Gardens, a zig-zagging yellow stair-scape, dotted with seating and viewing platforms framing views of Tempelhofer Feld and the Berlin skyline, leads directly to the roof of HAUS 1. “From the roof, one can witness the entire skyline of Berlin's urban landscape, with Tempelhofer Feld as its front yard,” highlights Van Rijs.

There the building has been extended with a timber pavilion of cross-laminated prefab modules, with bio-based materials and healthy finishes, such as a clay ceiling. A living roof of native plants completes the newly accessible rooftop which now also serves to collect rainwater, feeding into a comprehensive water retention plan implemented on-site.

This green landscaping, new roof insulation, and sun shades on the building’s two glass façades reduce heat gain in the summer, improving the building's climate resilience, while low-temperature underfloor heating moderates the indoor climate in the cold months. All lighting has been converted to energy-efficient LED systems and the sanitary fittings are all water efficient, including low water-use WCs that will be flushed with recycled rainwater from the next phase of the campus’ rainwater harvesting system.

Internally, HAUS 1 will host adaptive work and meeting spaces across four floors, including the headquarters of Atelier Gardens and a café. The floorplans have been altered to maximise the building’s flexibility, simplifying future changes in use or layout and thus extending the building’s lifespan.

With its focus on reusing as much of the structure as possible, and giving preference to durable, recyclable materials with a low environmental footprint whenever new material was required, HAUS 1 shows how building transformations can do more with less.

Team:

Architect: MVRDV

Founding Partner in charge: Jacob van Rijs

Partner: Fokke Moerel

Design Team: Klaas Hofman, Jonathan Schuster, Monica Di Salvo, Pim Bangert, Andre Bahremand, Simone Costa, Egle Jacinaviciute, Andrea Molinari

Visualisations: Antonio Luca Coco, Angelo La Delfa, Jaroslaw Jeda

Environmental Advisor: Peter Mensinga

Copyright: MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries

Co-architect: HS-Architekten (Markus Hirschmüller, Harald Schindele, Andreas Credo, Leonie Lorenz, Miguel Lopez, Maximilian August, Larissa Preuss, Benedict Tulinius, Goran Petrovic, Lydia Kotzan, Ioanna Nicolaou, Claudia Große-Hartlage)

Landscape Design: Harris Bugg Studio 

Project Coordination: Drees & Sommer 

Fire protection: Brandschutz Plus+ Eberl-Pacan Brandschutzplaner Structural +

Facade engineering: Drees & Sommer SE M & E / Planning: Buro Happold Building physics: Ingenieurbüro Axel C. Rahn Waste water: HATI Gesellschaft für Handwerk Technik und Innovation 

Ground Surveyor: MKP 

General contractor: KPM3 

Photography: © Schnepp Renou, © Lukas Drobny 

Materials Used:

Lighting advisor: Deltalight 

Metal construction: Metallbau Weinmann 

Carpentry and Roofing: Zimmerei & Dachdeckerei Quappe 

Transformation of a tired office building into a bold new campus entrance

With the completion of Haus1, the new Impact Campus Atelier Gardens on the former site of the BUFA film studio in Berlin has acquired a striking new entrance – in bright yellow, the building is visible from far away with its sculpture-like external staircase. During the planning process, the London-based project developer Fabrix, MVRDV Architekten (Rotterdam) and Hirschmüller Schindele Architekten (Berlin) followed a stringent sustainable approach, which is why as much embodied energy as possible was preserved in the repurposing of the former office building from the late 1990s.

Penthouse level with panoramic view

A high-quality space was created with the new penthouse level. From there, the spectacular view extends far across the Tempelhofer Feld. The sweeping vista is also preserved on the inside of the new roof pavilion, with a large glass front made of cero sliding windows.

Maximum transparency

Project Manager Markus Hirschmüller: “The client requested that the profiles be as invisible as possible when closed and disappear entirely when open.” This made the cero III sliding window by Solarlux an obvious choice. “The building components look very elegant with their slim profile construction,” the architect adds. The cero system offers all-round window profiles of only 34 mm, enabling a glass composition of up to 98 percent.

Project-specific opening variants

The two project-specific opening variants of the six-piece system create a variable, seamless transition between the indoors and outdoors: in the first variant, the two outer cero sliding elements are “parked” on a three-track accessible floor track in front of the two middle window panels; in the second variant, two middle elements are parked in front of each of the two outer sliding windows to achieve the full opening width. 

Seamless transitions

As well as the roof pavilion, the interior design concept on the ground floor stands out for its impressive connection to the outside. The Ecoline bi-folding door system creates three seamless transitions to the heart of the campus: the garden. The doors open up the cafeteria with two sets of three and one set of six consecutive elements across a length of 2.80 m and 4.20 m respectively. Markus Hirschmüller explains the advantages of the system: “The system allows the manufacturer to connect as many elements in a row as they like, while still preserving its function as a door, meaning it can be opened without multiple glass bundles.”