Location: Berlin, Germany.

Architect: 3XN.

cube berlin is in a unique and highly prominent location on Washington Platz, with a spacious public square fronting Berlin’s new Main Railway Station Lehrter Bahnhof. The masterplan for Washington Platz defines the cube berlin to be a perfect cubic body with five equally important facades including the roof. 3XN’s design envisions a relief-patterned, reflective facade with a kaleidoscopic reading of the surroundings. The cube berlin was originally a winning competition entry for Deutsche Bahn’s new headquarters, and the current design for CA Immo looks to meet strategic 21st-century flexibility demands in a multi-tenant building. The result is a sculpted body shaped by pushing the façade inwards to create outside platforms at all levels.

This dynamic facade creates relief in the strict form through a stepped thermal façade beneath an outer glass skin that wraps the building in a triangular pattern. Access points are introduced via tent-like openings in the outer skin on all four sides and on multiple floors. The layered facade is made up of 12 different glass elements distributed in different combinations across the building and in both layers. The ventilated double skin façade offers high performance as a daylight provider and at the same time provides very effective protection against heat gains while allowing users to benefit from natural ventilation. The façade enters an overall high/low tech energy management system based on energy displacement that transfers energy surplus into cooling in another area.