The new district of Elbbrücken is currently being constructed and will mark the HafenCity's eastern entrance. Here, a modern, innovative office building is to be built – one whose design concept will support a collaborative and cooperative work environment where innovative ideas can flourish.

Edge ElbSide Hamburg looks beyond the typical, monotonous sequence of individual offices along corridors and avoids an exclusionary introversion that removes opportunities for dialogue with the urban and living fabric of the new district. It promotes a modern working environment based on a “living organism” that evolves from a communicative layout, opening up and becoming transparent to its surroundings.

Office spaces are not foreseen as zoned, standard administrative office spaces with individual offices, but rather as differentiated and flexible open spaces. Inside, open staircases are organized around a “main street” – the communicative marketplace and heart of the building – and enable vertical connections across multiple floors.

Outwardly facing winter gardens are organized through the building over several levels, creating individual opportunities for working and meeting. The winter gardens offer lounge-type spaces all year round and act as intermediate zones between outside and inside. They also act as points of orientation along the “main street” and are enriched with landscape elements that offer seasonally adaptable microclimates while maximizing energy efficiency.

The overall approach of the energy concept is to maximize modularity, flexibility and the quality of living in harmony with the environment. Therefore, winter gardens are deliberately proposed to promote the year-round relationship between interior and exterior space. A controlled, wind-dependent and natural cross-ventilation (at night) is made possible through the building via these buffer zones, significantly reducing energy use.