The new office building for the German Bundestag is located in the government district, situated between the Spree River and the elevated city rail tracks next to the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, which is also used as a government administrative building. Inspired by its comb-like layout, the architects designed a seven storeys tall building volume on an H-shaped plan, resulting in the creation of two courtyards. The southern courtyard serves as access to the building, while the northern courtyard is intended as a recreational space for staff members. It is protected from the adjacent city rail tracks by a building-height glazed wall that also forms the lateral perimeter of an open steel staircase.
With the exception of the ground floor and the central circulation area, the new building is completely comprised of stacked cross laminated timber modules that house the individual office units. In certain areas, one lateral wall each was omitted, in order to create double-sized rooms that can be used for meetings or as open-plan office space. The individual modules - including windows, floor construction, electrical wiring and ceiling sails - were fabricated inan industrial hall in Berlin-Köpenick, exclusively rented for this purpose. Only the special modules for sanitary units and other particular functions were manufactured in the main factory of Kaufmann Bausysteme in Austria and transported to Berlin. The degree of prefabrication of the room modules of about 85 % required extremely precise advance planning. In very early phases, planners dealt with finishing details: By use of a full-scale model prototype, they determined all material selections and coordinated the selected products with the involved manufacturers. As a result, planning changes and change orders were avoided during the execution phase.
In offices and corridors, the interior timber module walls remain exposed, contributing to a warm and friendly indoor atmosphere, in conjunction with dark red carpet flooring. The coloured glass in front of the openable window panels provides office spaces with a degree of individuality and casts light in yellow, reddish or green hues into the interiors.
