In pursuing the aim of creating a lively Berlin district, in ‘Quartier Heidestrasse’ rather than erecting a single large building a neighbourhood based on the cultivated coexistence of different buildings and architectures is to be developed. We see the industrial history of this place as offering the starting point and inspiration for juxtaposing different elements. The former warehouses, factories and railways buildings offer links for developing a typology for the new Berlin Gewerbehöfe (commercial buildings). A family of ten precisely positioned and typologically powerful buildings creates the framework for new life along Heidestrasse.

The row of simple commercial buildings is accentuated by slender, individual high-rises. Headquarters buildings, one at the southern end and one at Nordhafenplatz, place urban accents and with their dimensions and different heights respond precisely to the open spaces in front of them. Using the restrained idiom of a language inspired by industry the facades are to be differently formulated, which will allow the individual parts to be clearly read as independent buildings. By recessing and projecting certain elements additional variety is generated within the system.