Waterloohain W5+
NEWLY BUILT CORPORATE HEAD OFFICE FOR A PUBLIC RELATIONS AGENCY. The black poly-spectral shimmering building connects the Medienpool Waterloohain and the four-story building nearly floats above a parking space.
An extension is currently being constructed as an addition to the existing building at Waterloohain 5 in Hamburg with its characteristic additional storeys. The implementation of the Master Plan already developed in 1999 for the MEDIENPOOL WATERLOOHAIN is now being continued.
The currently unsatisfactory urban-constructional street corner, Eimsbüttler Straße / Doormannsweg, is to be included and consolidated in the new building shell. The area along the border of the street will now be enhanced by adopting the neighbouring eaves height. The retaining of the platanen trees at this point will emphasise the greening avenue characteristics of the 2nd Hamburg Ring Road.
The west facade of the “W5 Building” will therefore remain unaffected for the most part. The transition between the existing building and the extension will be visually emphasised using a modernising intersection that raises to the height of the present structures. The new building construction connects to the previous exterior stairwell of the existing building.
The four storey building shell is poised over a nearly 1 metre lower parking area. At the level of the 4th storey the building shell points with a significant overhanging gesture towards the Doormanns-Weg. On the courtyard side of the construction, the building shell rises; tiered rearwards at the level of the 2nd storey and again at the 4th storey, thus emulating the building lines of the existing building and the additional storeys of Waterloohain 5.
The main facade is clad with a surrounding construction of vertical plates of black poly-spectral stainless steel. The plates are turned in a variety of directions to the vertical, dependent on the situation of the storey and the facade face, thus producing a changeable effect over the entire facade surface.
The changing impression obtained when viewed from various angles of the facade structure emulates and repeats the themes of the variable red poly-spectral sheet metal featured on the additional storey of the W5 Building. The result of varying the color of the facade manages to produce the effect of a natural and permanent connecting element to the overall building constructional ensemble.
On the north side, in the Doormannsweg, the large dimensioned shopping-window-like glass surfaces of the 2nd and 3rd storeys create a powerful contrast to the closed impression of the other facade with the plate constructional surfaces. When viewing the supportive structure of the existing buildings W5 and E64, originating from the sixties, it is obvious that the yellow brick of the west and east facades of the supportive building structures reveal their vintage, whereas the north and south facades are curtained and the supportive building structure overhung.
Since the W5 and E64 buildings stand practically at right-angles to each other, the W5 building has an unsupported band-like facade running longitudinally and the E64 building a perforated facade as its longitudinal face; at which levels the supportive structure exists. The intermediate new building structure between them thus develops its own independent aspect in the structurally supportive system; this connects the two existing buildings like a brace instead of simply emulating the two existing structures. The supports and beams of the new supportive structure are constructed in prefabricated architectural exposed-face quality concrete.
The direct nature of the structure emphasises the independence of the extended new building.
A new Centre is thus created in the ‘MEDIENPOOL WATERLOOHAIN’
