OMA has designed a new building for media and technology company Axel Springer at its corporate campus in Berlin. Spread across 560,000 square feet, the soaring 10-story cubic office structure accommodates more than 3,000 employees connected via a network of 13 bridges. The project is characterized by openness and transparency—best captured in the sun-drenched atrium, which sits more than 145 feet above street level. The atrium divides the building into sections crafted to promote collaboration and socialization.
“Paradoxically, the current pandemic and concurrent digital acceleration demonstrate the need for spaces conceived for human beings to interact,” says Rem Koolhaas, architect and founder of OMA. “In the typical office building, a visitor enters and then disappears. It is far from clear what happens inside. In the new Axel Springer building, people and their interaction are the essence. The Springer building is a tool for the further development of a company in perpetual motion. It offers its users a physical base—a wide variety of spatial conditions, intimate to monumental—in contrast to the flatness of working in virtual space.”
