OMA's design for Axel Springer's new media centre in Berlin has been chosen as the winner in the final round of a public design competition. (see project)
The building will embody Axel Springer's corporate shift from print to digital media, and will create a new hub in the existing Axel Springer campus in central Berlin. Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer: "We are very happy to be able to build the new building of our publishing house together with Rem Koolhaas. He presented the conceptually and esthetically most radical model. The fundamental innovation of working environments will support the cultural transformation towards a digital publishing house."
Rem Koolhaas, founding partner of OMA: "It is a wonderful occasion for our office to build in Berlin again, on this historical site of all places, for a client who has mobilized architecture to help perform a radical change…a workplace in all its dimensions…"Opposite the existing Axel Springer headquarters on Zimmerstrasse, a street which previously bisected East and West Berlin, the building will be situated at one of the city's most significant and central locations.
