The latest extension to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs was recently completed. The existing building and an initial extension by Kleihues and Kleihues from 2008 are located at Wilhelmstraße 50, not far from the Brandenburg Gate. The huge building complex stretches from Wilhelmstraße to the parallel Mauerstraße. It is a historic address: this was the site of Joseph Goebbels' notorious Reich Ministry of Propaganda during the Third Reich.

In 2013, an open, anonymous competition was held for a new southern extension, which, following the demolition of a GDR building located there, now closes the gap in the building line and thus the classic Berlin block perimeter. The Freiburg-based architectural firm K9 won this competition with its almost classicist, albeit reinterpreted, design. The new building was opened at the end of 2019. The existing building served as a guide for the façade design of the extension. As a result, the K9 building has a similar visual character to the Kleihues building: a classic perforated façade that blends in sensitively thanks to its structuring design elements. The ground floor is slightly higher than the other five floors, thus forming a base zone. On the 4th floor, a cornice creates a further visual break. The reveals of the regular floor-to-ceiling windows are very deep, which also has a structuring effect. Added to this is the elegant natural stone cladding of the façade, which lends the building a touch of nobility.

On the ground floor, at the left end of the building, there is a clearly marked entrance to a daycare centre, and at the far right, the entrance to the exhibition space, which has the same design. The upper five floors house individual offices and group meeting rooms. Access to the administrative area is only possible via a glass corridor from the main building. Spacious corridors open up to the stairwell and two-storey atriums, which serve as meeting and communication areas. Offices for a total of 95 employees were created. The extension was constructed as a low-energy building. This includes, among other things, space-optimised planning and the use of sustainable materials in the rooms. The building was awarded gold status in the BNB certification system.

www.k9architekten.de

Source photos: Federal Ministry of Construction and Regional Planning

Photography Credits:

Dr Cordia Schlegelmilch
www.cordia-schlegelmilch.de

(Published in CUBE Berlin 01|21)