Julian Breinersdorfer

OSW Werke . Berlin

Julian Breinersdorfer Architekten . renders: © ArtefactoryLab

When Oberfinanzrat Reinbeck built a country mansion on the banks of the river spree, he named it after his wife, Wilhelmine.
Wilhelminenhof then turned into a popular restaurant and landmark. In the late nineteenth century AEG built factories and power stations on the land. Some of these buildings still remain as icons of Berlins industrial architecture, like the Kabelwerk or Peter Behrens‘ Neue Automobil Gesellschaft.

The plot of OSW Werke sits just north of this industrial heritage, spanning between Wilhelminenhofstraße and the river bank.
The main building is composed of a large scale barrel vault Industriehalle with a attached compact side wing building. It embraces a south-west oriented exterior space on the river bank. It houses flexible units for light industrial or office program, organised around two compact cores. On the eastern edge, a Torhaus frames the entrance from Wilhelminenhofstraße.

The Industriehalle‘s plinth floors are build from pre fabricated concrete modules. The barrel vault is a steel skeleton with timber floorplates. The ultra lightweight construction has been engineered by Werner Sobek‘s Berlin team.

The fully glazed building skin opens in summer nights to store the chill in it‘s concrete components. Intelligent exterior textile sunshading follows the sun‘s route while always leaving views open.
This passive cooling concept has been developed with the consultation of Transsolar.

Slender skin and skeleton, as well as the the compact circulation, lead to a net/gross area ratio of 89.2%.
_