Dockland

Hamburg, Germany

Photo © Jörg Hempel

Picture © Ingenieurbüro Dr. Binnewies

Office Buildings

Engineers: Ingenieurbüro Dr. Binnewies

Location: Hamburg, Germany
Year: 2006

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. 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.

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 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.

Client
Robert Vogel GmbH & Co.KG

Architect
BRT Architekten, Bothe · Richter · Teherani, Hamburg

Structural Engineers
Ingenieurbüro Dr. Binnewies

Characteristics
Creation of new building site in the Elbe river
Parallelogram-shaped structure with 45 metres projection
safeguards to withstand ship collision