Eike Becker_Architekten and Hadi Teherani Architects won first prize in an international competition for the new headquarters of the National Iranian Gas Company in Tehran. The jury was convinced by the holistic approach, which is dedicated to the central principles of Iranian architectural history leading them into modernity.
Eike Becker_Architekten convinced with their design for the 70 meter high boarding and office tower A-TOWN HIGH in the Augsburg Innovation Park. The invited offices included Studio Libeskind from New York, Henning Larsen from Copenhagen, and Allmann Sattler Wappner and Kupferschmidt Architekten from Munich.
Eike Becker_Architekten in the category All Eyes on German Architecture 2019 of the current issue of the magazine discover GERMANY, Switzerland & Austria. The bilingual magazine reports monthly on the latest trends in architecture, design, culture and business.
My gaze wanders over the evening skyline of Berlin. As far as the eye can see, the lights of a dense, up-and-coming city. With friends we discuss the dramas of this world in their apartment with a large roof terrace and yummy red wine. The inaptitude of today's students, the liar in the White House, the melting polar caps, the life-weary British, Titanic Europe: everywhere they see gruesome demise, hopeless misery and irreversible doom. My arguments cannot dispel their despair. The force of their hopelessness surprised me and made me return home at a loss.
We fought. We sweated. And we won. The trophy once again decorates our office – and has to be defended on 7 September 2019.
The winner of the architectural competition for the residential high-rise at Frankfurt's main railway station, sponsored by Groß & Partner and PHOENIX Real Estate, has been announced: congratulations to the colleagues from Mecanoo. The design by Eike Becker_Architekten made it onto the shortlist.
The mood of a new beginning would not be expected in the newspaper industry at present. According to the general findings, digitisation leads to the loss of subscriptions and advertising customers. Still, construction is strong. A number of media companies are moving into new locations in Germany at the same time.
In the construction sector, full employment has been achieved almost everywhere in Germany. Companies have long since turned into applicants for young talent. This makes the relationship between employees and employers more balanced and equal. A good development. Almost like in the Bundesliga or the Premier League, the salaries and transfer fees for skilled workers are being increased in large steps ("Manchester United was yesterday. You will become a star in the construction industry"). Some already call it "War for Talents."
Four offices. Four different architectural signatures. One goal: a new multifaceted residential quarter in the best location on the River Rhine in Speyer. The planning application for our LOOP_SIDE quarter has been submitted.
At 9.00 am in the morning, I enter the “E-Werk”, the abandoned epicentre of the Berlin club scene of the 90s. Suits are in attendance here today. Prof. Dr. Ulrich Walter opens the lecture series. He was in space for ten days in 1993. Today, the physicist is a professor of space technology at the TU Munich, no longer wears a space suit, now has white hair and is a smooth speaker. To my surprise, he talks about the future of mankind in our solar system and the colonisation of the Milky Way. I don't care about that at all. The subject is just too far away. I bend over my phone and answer my e-mails that have accumulated.
Can there be a just state that lets all people live happily and that will provide for them? Thomas More already asked this question as a contemporary of Erasmus von Rotterdam and Martin Luther. The work "Utopia" is the first utopian novel, a model for many that followed. It features the account of a seafarer who claims to have come across an ideal state on a far-flung island. Thomas More discusses with him: Should there be private property? Is social equality good? Can a society generate enough goods if nobody strives for profit? Is there a good and just head of state? More might ask his questions as follows today: Who decides city? Who decides what is built where and how? And how is building law created? In a constitutional state, a pluralist democracy, in Berlin?
After 30 years, I return to the terrace of Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle and look over the ground floor of Broderie, past the Bassines des Tritons, over the Cascades up the hill to the gleaming golden statue of Hercules Farnese. The garden architect André Le Nôtre invented the French baroque garden with this masterpiece. Long before the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution. A geometric wonder park, conceived and controlled by the human mind in an inhospitable environment. Le Nôtre already knew that the world is a globe, but he would not have dreamed that his idea of a man-made world would one day embrace the entire earth. When my small group finally reaches Hercules Farnese, leaning casually on his club, we are tired from the blazing heat and do not even find any cool under the centuries-old plane trees. The lawns are withered and the over 100 fountains have been shut down.
Subsequent densification is the topic of the hour. Sounds like a mixture of packhorse, container ship and tenement barracks. And many authorities, armed with their current building laws, are fighting like rugby players to defend every additional metre. But in the world’s most attractive metropolises, people live together densely. Is construction in Germany possibly too low, too narrow, too loose and overall too airy? In my column in Immobilienwirtschaft 06/2018, I ask whether cities cannot also become better if their inhabitants move together more closely. However, urban densification must be politically intended and planned holistically. Then much denser cities could also become places with a high quality of life and community life.
The cheering of the enthusiastic patrons roars around me in the “Schuetzenzelt” tent at the Munich Oktoberfest. My gaze wanders from the gallery over the party makers, almost completely decked out in traditional costume. There are thousands in this tent alone. My Bavarian host is also surprised at so much global devotion to the lederhosen traditions of the region and enlightens me, “in the seventies, in our youth, we were all here in jeans.” Today, he regards this traditional costume show as a masquerade. Is it simply a kind of carnival and the joy of slipping into another identity? Dressing up as a Bavarian girl today, and as a Northern girl tomorrow? But on the “Wiesen”, at the Munich Oktoberfest, everyone is dressed in similar costume, and that as traditional as possible. This is about being part of a community, about cohesion strengthened by traditions and belonging to a group. This does address me emotionally.
On my journey through the world of architecture, I am always amazed at events taking place and wonder why this is actually happening, how it is happening and how it could be improved. On the jury for the ZIA (Zentraler Immobilien Ausschuss) Innovation Report, I discussed a host of projects for a whole day that might make our cities better.
We miss our connecting flight and experience a desert metropolis in Amman that has to fend for itself, a city far removed from international trade flows, without billions from oil but with millions of refugees. Jordan borders on the crisis-ridden areas of Palestine and Syria; the Jordan and the Dead Sea have all but dried up, not many tourist attractions that have emerged since Roman antiquity. The people here have a hard time getting by in the dusty heat. At least, there is peace.
For the social cohesion of society, my agenda for strategic urban development is as follows: Strengthen public institutions, draw up new urban development plans, adapt existing land use plans, generally build more densely and higher...
In 2021 the newspaper with a global readership will move its office to the high-rise office building in Europaallee designed by Eike Becker_Architekten.
Innovations are only good if they support the vividness and creativity, the diversity and richness of different ways of life.
In the competition with five other architectural offices Eike Becker_Architekten won in the final round against the office Sauerbruch Hutton. We are looking forward to this great project!
On November, 15th 2017 the 2. Innovation Conference of "ZIA" took place at the Cafe Moskau in Berlin. Eike Becker was there and exchanged ideas about future developments.
Same procedure as every year... Also in 2017 we've been visiting the "Expo Real" - the International Trade Fair for Property and Investement - in Munich. From October, 8th-10th 2017 we got informed about the latest news of the 2.003 exhibitors, had interesting conversations and made new contacts.
Fourteen Berlin architectural offices came togeterh on September, 2nd 2017 in the sports facilities of FSV Babelsberg 74 to fight for victory in the Berlin Architects Football Tournament. The team of "Max Dudler" won the final match...
Since 1992 the first Saturday in September has always been the day for 14 teams of architects to kick the ball and find the winner of the "ABC – Architekten Berlin Cup“. The tradition is that they play on small lawn fields in teams with one goalkeeper and seven field players including at least one child or one woman.
The jury of the contest about a high-rise at the square "Güterplatz" in Frankfurt a. M. selected the designed concept of Eike Becker_Architekten as the winner of the 3rd prize.
On Juli, 12th 2017 we welcomed a group of international employees of DORMA Hüppe at our office. We are looking forward to work togeter on upcoming projects...
Article in the member journal of BWV, June 2017
Video clip of program "Panorama" by ARD from April, 20th 2017
The department of building (Bauordnungsamt) of the Berlin district Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg gave the building permission for the high-rise "Spreeturm" close to the Ostbahnhof on October, 27th 2015. After finishing the design planning Eike Becker_Architekten were commissioned with the construction planning.
As in previous years Eike Becker_Architekten participated in the MIPIM, the worlds leading property market, in Cannes/France, that took place in the Palais des Festivals. From 14.-17. March 2017 we presented our current projects as partner of the "German Pavillon".
Eike Becker_Architekten got the permission for the first construction phase of their large-scale project at the "Kaiserlei" in Offenbach. An ensemble of buildings with 101.000 m2 gross building area is being planned.
An ensemble of buildings that is open to all sides and a bus station that is downsized to half of the current size at the square "Europaplatz" - this is how the heart of the city center of Mönchengladbach is supposed to look like in a few years. The jury of the urban design competition awarded the design of "House Westland" by Eike Becker_Architekten with the 3rd prize.
After winning the competition Eike Becker_Architekten were commissioned with the planning of the project. After intense negotiations the construction permit was given on January, 30th 2017.
In coordination with the senate administration of urban development and the district Mitte of Berlin the DWI Group ran a competition for the realization of an office building at the square "Otto-Weidt-Platz" in Berlin. Within a group of outstanding participants the design of Eike Becker_Architekten was awarded with the 3rd prize.
The jury of the competition chaired by Christoph Mäckler selected Eike Becker_Architekten togehter with Schulz & Schulz as the winners. After a revision phase Eike Becker_Architekten were commissioned by the Beamten-Wohnungs-Verein zu Berlin eG (Officials Housing Association) with the planning of a 20-storey high-rise in the district Gropiusstadt in Berlin.
In November 2016 the two buildings of "ma|ro" were completed and the first tenants moved into the offices. The two 7-storey corner buildings on both sides of the street "Neue Rothofstraße" create a new address for premium offices and high-scale retale areas.
