An office building like an ocean liner.
Building on the Elbe: Some 400 metres of sheet piles were installed and 30,000 cubic metres of earth were moved to create a new building site for this formidable building with its characteristic name. Dockland shines like a pearl in the chain of buildings on the northern bank of the Elbe River.
Four steel truss frameworks as tall as the building itself accomplish the great projection and the longitudinal reinforcement of the building, which is securely founded on piles.
The building offers roughly 9,000 square metres of office space. The width of the complex makes it possible to position communication zones such as kitchenettes or conference rooms "midships", though the same applies for archives or spaces for printers. Visitors can take the stairs or ride in comfort in two inclined elevators to a platform 35 metres above the Elbe for an ocean liner experience. But the farthest western tip – reaching way out over the Elbe – is only accessible to tenants.
The busy shipping traffic on the Elbe also called for special precautionary measures against accidents. Three circular dolphins were designed as a safeguard to withstand any ship collision.
© Jörg Hempel, BIN, BIN, BIN, BIN, BIN, BIN, Gunnar Ries (CC BY-SA 2.5), Jörg Hempel