Sometimes, all you need to ignite a big idea is a SPARK.

Ideas and creativity are often a key to success. In Berlin – the capital of start-ups – not a few companies are founded on the basis of a single brainwave. All it needs is the right environment, somewhere to unfold its full potential.

That’s exactly what we plan to create with our new centre for innovations in Storkower Straße, in the Berlin-Friedrichshain district. The site is already home to our current SCALE project. Connected via a central, low-traffic boulevard that features spacious areas where people can relax and chat, a new building will now be joining the complex.

In an innovative project aptly named SPARK, we’re developing our first ever hybrid timber building. Its striking facade will integrate powerfully yet harmoniously with the aspiring location north-east of Berlin’s city centre.

Extending over a site some 3,425 m² in size, the building will offer a gross floor area of 15,800 m² above and below ground. It will house modern offices and conference rooms with innovative, variable designs to allow for rental units of differing sizes. In addition, the building will include a catering area and a function room on the ground floor, two south-facing roof terraces on the first and sixth floors, and a spacious, light-flooded foyer to welcome visitors.
The mix of materials in SPARK offers advantages not only for future tenants but also for the environment. Conventional construction styles with steel and concrete are energy-intensive and use up lots of our planet’s resources. By contrast, SPARK focuses on timber, an ecologically friendly alternative. Wood is a natural raw material that is fully recyclable as well as renewable – and trees grow without any need for fossil fuels. This means that far less energy is required to produce wood than to produce steel or concrete. The carbon footprint of wood is significantly smaller than that of conventional building materials. In addition, wood has certain highly favourable properties: it’s low in weight but able to bear heavy loads, and it also helps create a favourable indoor climate. The tensile strength of concrete is thus complemented by the ecological advantages of timber.

As with previous projects, we’re aiming for gold-level certification from the German Sustainable Building Council.