Axel Springer building in Berlin is almost complete

• Completion on schedule and on budget 
• Handover on December 19, 2019
• 2020 will be all about the opening of the new building

Three years after construction began in 2016, it is now clear: The new Axel Springer building in Berlin will be completed on schedule and on budget. This was announced by Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer SE, during a press tour of the new Axel Springer building just days before the traditional handover of the key on December 19, 2019.

“The new Axel Springer building is on the verge of completion and you can already feel that we are witnessing not only the creation of a spectacular work of architecture, but also a meeting place where people will encounter one another and work together more successfully. Axel Springer has become a thoroughly digital company. The new building is a promise to our employees that together we will press ahead with the cultural transformation of Axel Springer with even greater vigor. I would like to thank architect Rem Koolhaas and everyone who was involved in the construction at general contractor Züblin as well as at Axel Springer, who worked together with amazing team-spirit to make it possible for us to accomplish this ambitious construction project both on time and on budget.”

Located on a 10,000 square-meter plot at the site of the the former wall in the heart of the erstwhile newspaper district, the office building was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Beginning in spring next year, various units and companies of Axel Springer SE will successively move in, including the WELT Newsroom for Print and Digital and the WELT TV studio, the employees of the price-comparison portal idealo as well as the digital publishing unit of Axel Springer in Germany (SPRING). Altogether over 52,000 square meters will be available for a total of 3,500 employees.

With its 13 stories (eleven above-ground, two subterranean), the building interior will be characterized by a 45-meter-high atrium and connected terraces, glass walls and bridges. The transparent, open architecture unites a radical aesthetic with modern working concepts. Together with the existing publishing house buildings, the new structure completes an ensemble of buildings ideally suited to the requirements of a digitalized media and technology company.

Axel Springer will celebrate the official opening and inauguration of the new office building in 2020 with a series of events highlighting both the history and the future of the company. The series will kick off in late February with the placement of “Stolperstein” cobblestones as part of a small ceremony in remembrance of the Berliners who were ousted from the former newspaper district, deported and in some cases murdered.

„Special building for new work“: Video shows the working worlds of the future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIInQswqIGY&feature=youtu.be

Microsite of the new Axel Springer building & documentary film “AUFBRUCH” (“AWAKENING”)

Up-to-date information, photos and videos of the new Axel Springer building are available at www.axelspringer-neubau.de (in German). A 15-minute documentary titled “AUFBRUCH” (“AWAKENING”) examines what the new building is designed to achieve for Axel Springer and what opportunities it offers, but also how it challenges the company to intensively address the future of work.

Source: Axel Springer SE