The colour yellow stands for envy. The neighbours are likely to be envious of the new-old office building that suddenly lights up the area. Only the team at MVRDV could have come up with this – typically Dutch. Unusually designed cubes are one of the trademarks of the architects from Rotterdam. They became world-famous with their "stacked landscapes" for Expo 2000 in Hanover – and just two years ago, Munich also received a cube landmark in the Werkviertel district.

Here, the architects immersed an ageing office building on the southern edge of Tempelhof Field in bright yellow paint. Why not? The yellow building, called "House 1", is just one of the projects that MVRDV has implemented together with Berlin architects Hirschmüller Schindele on the Atelier Gardens campus, the former BUFA film studios. The architects see the striking entrance building as a sign of dynamic change. A zigzag-shaped external staircase and a roof garden offering views of Tempelhof Field and the city were added to the former office building from the late 1990s. The staircase, which is an extension of the original fire escape, leads to the roof and a roof pavilion made of prefabricated wooden elements. The campus grounds look back on a 100-year tradition as the BUFA film studio.

The ground floor now serves as a co-working space with a café. The remaining office floors were gutted and left with flexible floor plans that can be freely designed. During the entire renovation, care was taken to generate as little grey energy as possible. Wherever possible, all parts of the former building were reused, such as the old doors. To contribute to low energy consumption, the building is now heated by underfloor heating, which was also newly installed. A new investor wants to establish a media company here. MVRDV and HS Architects developed the master plan for the site and are now implementing it step by step.

The campus is being transformed as part of a vision to expand its user base beyond filmmakers to include all forms of "changemakers," such as individuals focused on climate activism and social justice. "House 1," the yellow house, is already the second project that the architects have realised together on the site. "TON 1", a historic film studio, was the first a year earlier.

www.mvrdv.com

Photography:
Schnepp Renou
www.schnepp-renou.com

(Published in CUBE Berlin 02|24)