2. Prize I Officebuilding GIZ Campus

The basic shape of the building creates clearly defined outdoor areas, each of which sets different focal points for their uses:

• The forecourt as a prelude and welcoming place is paved to the necessary extent, and offers enough space for arriving groups, waiting people and cars driving up. In the center, a decorative bed with moisture-tolerant plants such as brightly flowering irises and tall sedges collects and cleans the rainwater from the adjacent areas.
• The courtyard in front of the staff restaurant is screened from the street by a gently rising embankment with seating steps and a planting at its back. The size of the courtyard is designed in such a way that individual tables can be placed slightly apart from each other so that they can also be used as desks or for meetings.
• The delivery courtyard is screened off at the south-eastern corner.
• The two northern courtyards are limited by the wooded islands and are also less sunny overall due to the building shade, which is beneficial during breaks as well as when working during the warm months.
• The courtyards are also designed to move the small informal meetings in the tea kitchen outside in a very short distance. The terraces are embedded in a shade planting at least waist-high and screened by individual large shrubs for privacy.
• The large roof area in direct spatial connection with the co-working and event area combines ball sports and gymnastics, breaks and urban farming as well as the possibility of working outdoors to enable informal gatherings with different groups. The individual areas are arranged in such a way that they interfere with each other as little as possible. Directly adjoining the corridor area is a large event terrace, which could also be enlarged if necessary.

The planting concept relies on a low-maintenance and robust strategy that can best be described as “controlled wilderness with increased biodiversity”. This broad ecological amplitude begins with the roofs, which develop into dry grasslands with a high diversity of species and a large number of Red List species through special substrates and hay seeds (also on the solar roofs!), and ends with the flowering wet meadow of the forecourt.

All green spaces are designed as species-rich meadows or site-appropriate woodland islands with a flowering undersow of native wild shrubs and become an important stepping stone of urban biodiversity. Where possible, surface water is channelled openly and infiltrated into hollows.