The headquarters of the magazine Spiegel in Hamburg by Henning Larsen

At the beginning of last November, the main headquarters of the publishing house Der Spiegel was ceremoniously opened at Ericusspitze 1 in Hamburg's Hafen-City. The building, reminiscent of a giant monitor, was designed by the Copenhagen office Henning Larsen Architekten, which was awarded one of the three first places in an international competition five years ago, and the foundation stone was laid three years ago. The thirteen-story building with an area of 30,000 m² of office space offers room for more than 1,100 employees. The architects managed to persuade the jury mainly with the logic of their solution, which divides the large mass into two smaller volumes. The new headquarters rests on a massive two-story pedestal, which, like other new buildings in Hafen-City, must withstand potential flooding storms. The plinth made of red fired bricks is intended to resemble similar historical monuments in the city. From the pedestal rise two glass office towers, which illuminate the entire waterfront at night and send signals out into the distance like a lighthouse.
In the interior, neutral tones of gray carpets and white walls prevail. Almost all offices are oriented towards the glass facade. The access paths are also all glassed in and provide ample daylight. Nevertheless, there are several colorful accents in the interior, which stand out significantly in the white environment. However, the color scheme used cannot be compared to the now legendary design of the original Spiegel headquarters by Verner Panton from the 1960s. Colors have been used in areas where employees do not work permanently and only stay temporarily: four staircases (yellow, red, orange, and ochre) and the canteen. On the fifth floor, there is a colorful 100 m² bar with a 'window to the city,' reminiscent of the legendary Panton canteen. The originally planned 'multimedia window' measuring 35 x 50 meters was ultimately not realized due to financial reasons.

Interview with Rem Koolhaas in Spiegel magazine not only about their new headquarters >