At the Heart of the HafenCity SKAI Office and Commercial Building in Hamburgby Robert Uhde | 13.04.2011

With its variedly designed shape and elegantly structured dark-red aluminum façade the office and commercial building SKAI creates a striking architectural fixed-point in the new quarter ”Am Sandtorkai“ at the heart of Hamburg’s HafenCity. The ten-storey new building designed by local architects Böge Lindner provides nearly 16,000 sqm of freely rentable office areas as well as additional business areas along the adjacent “Magellan terraces”. Vis-à-vis the building directly touches the historic warehouse district.

In order to bring the various functions into a coherent shape and to embed the building into the famous environment in an optimal manner, the architects deliberately designed the compact structure as an S-shape. To the North the thus evolving break resembles the numerous jutties and set-offs of the adjacent row of new buildings along the street Am Sandtorkai. Here, the red color creates a flowing transition towards the brick warehouses of the warehouse district. The building cut on the opposite Southern side corresponds to the round Coffee Plaza sky-scraper tower designed by Richard Meier and the Katharinenschule directly opposite of the new building.

In addition, the building mass of the SKAI is structured by the double-storey base as an appropriate response to the terrain slightly ascending from North to South and as a horizontal counterpart of the vertically arranged façade profiles. Towards the street the base integrates the main entrance and the delivery. Towards the square it jumps back slightly and integrates the row of commercial buildings along the Magellan terraces. Apart from a drugstore the public also has a little coffee bar at hand. And despite all the sterility the area still gives off: When the weather is nice you can enjoy your Cappuccino in a relaxed atmosphere watching the historic ships in the adjacent traditional harbor and marvel at the Elbphilharmonie construction site. So, all in all a grand HafenCity show.

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