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BÜRO UND VERWALTUNG • OFFICE BUILDINGS TECHNISCHER AUSBAU • TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
I n 2007, four friends from Bavaria were sitting together in Berlin and decided to solve
Entwurf • Design IFUB* Institut für u. Baukunst, München/Ber lin their chronic lack of players for the Schafkopf cardgame popular in Bavaria with the
Bauherr • Client Sauspiel GmbH, Berlin
Standort • Location Schinkestr. 9, 12047 Berlin
Fertigstellung • Completion März 2015
Nutzfläche • Floor space 176 m 2
Fotos • Photos Julia Klug, Hamburg
Luftbild und Außenansicht • Aerial view and exterior view
Grundriss • Floor plan
Schnitte • Sections
174 • AIT 10.2016
help of a website they were going to create. Seven years later, the fixed idea had turned
into a huge success and the team of Sauspiel GmbH, grown to include 14 employees, had
to find new premises. The clients made a find in the part of Neukölln closest to
Kreuzberg, popularly also called “Kreuzkölln”. It was there that a particularly attractive
example of historic industrial architecture – the old chocolate factory – was in parts for
sale and it was possible to purchase a section of the mezzanine floor as the future new
office. Open working structures and a flat hierarchy were to be reconciled with the
request for lots of storage space and a separately usable guest apartment.
The “chocolate factory” is an office property with a long history.
The old factory building is located in the rear courtyard of a compact urban block in the
Berlin district of Neukölln. The proximity to the Landwehrkanal but also to the lively cen-
tres of Kottbusser Tor and Hermannplatz makes the location especially attractive for
young traders. The office is in the on the mezzanine floor. The “chocolate factory” built
around 1870 is one of the oldest conserved commercial buildings in this part of Berlin.
From 1926 to 1973, chocolate was indeed produced here which gives the building its
name to the present day. In the years 1976 and 1977, the building became somewhat
famous since it was turned into shared flats with the explicit consent of the owner yet
against the request by the municipality and the building supervision. The repeatedly
impending eviction in the end never happened and thus, during the following decades,
the building became known not only for the residents’ parties but also for the first
Turkish cultural association in Berlin and the Klecks children’s theatre. Not until the end
of the 1990s or at the beginning of the new millennium, respectively, were the leases ter-
minated and the building gradually converted. In the course of the division into indivi-
dual units and the subsequent sale of the building by the new owners, a new fire-pro-
tection concept was established which, besides the fire escape – unsightly positioned in
the centre of the façade – also included a revision of the original fabric.
The interventions are in the tension field between the old and the new
For converting an existing building, particularly whenever only a part of the building can
be changed, there are often only few possibilities for environmental optimization.
Besides renovating and sealing the original box-type windows, the most important com-
ponent was thus the securing, the exposing Freilegung and the conservation of as many
original materials as possible. Following the simple guideline “anything you don’t remove
you also don’t have to replace” – the interventions were reduced to a minimum. In the
course of the renovation, the fire-protection of the load-bearing construction had to be
updated. The sand-blasting of the cast-iron columns and beams for the new fire-protecti-
on coating was used to also the expose the vaulted ceiling elaborately constructed of
bricks. Together with the concept for colours and materials, the ceiling now forms the
opposite pole to the likewise red brick floor. All the vertical, space-enclosing surfaces, in
contrast, were designed in white, which makes for spatial clarity. As a consequence,
everything inside the rooms – columns, beams, tables as well as the glass partitions –
was deliberately painted black and grey. When selecting all the new materials, equal
value was placed on high quality and durability. In the vestibule and the upper area,
there were no longer any original floor coverings, which was why here cement tiles in a
chessboard pattern and pine floorboards were selected coordinated with the existing
fabric and the intended use. A particular challenge was connecting the free-standing
workstations without damaging the existing floor.
Two added ceiling-high pieces of furniture newly structure the rooms
In the lower office area, the new built-in furniture unites the WCs, the tea kitchen and
the storage areas and, at the same time, separates the staircase and the vestibule from
the open-plan office landscape. The latter in turn is subdivided with glass partitions with
large sliding doors which separate the work area from the privacy- and the meeting
rooms. The entrance door which had formerly been welded shut was reactivated and the
vestibule was shielded from the work area by the large piece of furniture. This buffer zone
now makes entering the office area without any disturbance possible. Together with the
integrated tea kitchen, the “back side” of the built-in furniture is the connective link bet-
ween the office and the vestibule. Besides the access to the “WCs inside the cabinet”,
this is also where the cloakroom is found below the stairs to the upper area.