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B-One: new office building for Berlin Hyp

Berlin, Germany

Delivering measurable sustainability outcomes from the earliest stages of design, º£½ÇÊÓƵ helped real estate financier Berlin Hyp realise a flagship workplace that sets a new benchmark for climate-responsive commercial development in the heart of Berlin.

B-One is an 11-storey office building located at a prominent inner-city site at the junction of Budapester Strasse and the Landwehr Canal. Designed by C.F. Møller Architects, the building establishes a strong architectural presence while responding sensitively to its urban context through a stepped form that integrates terraces and green space across the facade.

From the outset, Berlin Hyp set an ambitious brief to create a ‘lighthouse’ project that would demonstrate leadership in sustainable finance and real estate. º£½ÇÊÓƵ was embedded within the project from the earliest stages, supporting the architectural competition and advising on strategy, whole life carbon and lighting design. This early engagement shaped both the deconstruction of the existing building and the design of its successor, ensuring that sustainability principles informed every decision.

The completed building provides approximately 19,000m² of office space, alongside public-facing and collaborative areas that reflect contemporary ways of working. It combines high environmental performance with a strong focus on employee wellbeing, creating a workplace that aligns with Berlin Hyp’s values of transparency, innovation and environmental responsibility.

We shaped sustainability from the competition through to project completion, guiding design decisions through whole life carbon analysis and aligning ambition with measurable outcomes.

Our team embedded circular thinking, delivering a material passport and deconstruction strategy that extends value far beyond the building’s operational life.

We quantified the positive impacts of climate resilience measures through a dedicated climate risk assessment for the project.

We combined sustainability and lighting design to improve energy performance while creating a flexible, user-focused workplace that supports wellbeing.

Challenge

The project posed a series of interconnected challenges, shaped by both its urban context and its ambitious sustainability aspirations.

Located on a dense city centre plot, the development required careful balancing of competing demands. The building footprint occupies much of the site, limiting opportunities for traditional green space and placing pressure on the design team to deliver meaningful biodiversity, climate resilience and amenity within a constrained environment. At the same time, the architecture needed to respond sensitively to neighbouring buildings, stepping down in height while maintaining a strong civic presence.

A further challenge lay in reconciling whole life carbon performance with the design ambitions of the building. While the integration of photovoltaic panels and extensive glazing enhances operational performance and architectural intent through increased daylight provision, it also introduces embodied carbon impacts requiring careful assessment and management. Understanding and communicating this balance was critical to informed decision making.

The project also began with the deconstruction of an existing building, creating both an opportunity and a responsibility to maximise material reuse and minimise waste. Achieving high sustainability standards across both the deconstruction and new build phases required consistent, robust evaluation methods and alignment across the project team. We also provided guidance on the sustainability certification of the deconstruction phase, which successfully achieved DGNB Platinum.

Finally, the client’s ambition to create a future-ready workplace introduced an additional layer of complexity. The building needed to support evolving patterns of work, enhance user wellbeing and provide flexibility over time, all while maintaining stringent environmental performance targets.

Solution

º£½ÇÊÓƵ responded to these challenges by providing integrated sustainability and lighting consultancy, anchored in a whole life perspective and delivered through close collaboration with the wider design team.

From the earliest stages, the team undertook whole life carbon assessments covering both the deconstruction of the existing building and the new development. This enabled the client and design team to understand the carbon implications of design choices, balancing operational savings against embodied impacts and guiding informed trade-offs throughout the project lifecycle.

During the deconstruction phase, º£½ÇÊÓƵ supported the achievement of a DGNB deconstruction certificate, helping to ensure that materials were responsibly managed and that high levels of recycling were achieved. This approach extended the project’s sustainability ambitions beyond the new building itself, embedding circular thinking from the outset.

For the new development, º£½ÇÊÓƵ led sustainability aligned to DGNB certification, contributing to the project achieving Platinum status. Our work addressed key areas including operational energy, embodied carbon, biodiversity and climate resilience.

The building integrates a range of environmental strategies to reduce operational energy demand. These include facade-integrated photovoltaic panels, geothermal systems and thermally activated concrete slabs, contributing to a reduction in energy consumption of more than 50% compared to the previous building. A hybrid ventilation approach combines central and decentralised systems, allowing occupants to choose between mechanical ventilation and natural ventilation via operable windows, supporting both energy efficiency and user comfort.

In response to the constraints of the site, º£½ÇÊÓƵ supported the development of a climate-resilient landscape strategy that uses the building itself as a carrier of green infrastructure. The stepped form creates terraces that accommodate planting and biodiversity features, while also enabling effective rainwater management. Rainwater is retained and cascades through the terraces before being stored on site, reducing pressure on the urban drainage network and supporting irrigation.

Lighting design formed an integral part of the sustainability and wellbeing strategy. This contributes to a more inclusive and responsive working environment.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ also introduced a material passport for the building, documenting the materials and components used throughout.  As one of the early examples of this approach in Germany, it represents a significant step towards circularity, enabling future disassembly, reuse and resource recovery. These interventions were underpinned by ongoing sustainability advisory throughout the design process, ensuring that performance targets were maintained as the project evolved.

Value

º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s greatest value on the B-One project lay in its ability to translate ambition into measurable outcomes, guiding the client and design team through complex sustainability decisions with clarity and confidence.

By engaging from the earliest stages, the team ensured that sustainability was not treated as an add-on but embedded as a core driver of design. Our whole life carbon assessments helped Berlin Hyp to balance embodied and operational impacts while maintaining the architectural vision.

The practice also played a key role in broadening the scope of sustainability beyond carbon alone. By addressing biodiversity, water management and climate resilience in an integrated way, we helped to transform the constraints of a dense urban site into an opportunity to deliver meaningful environmental benefits. The result is a building that not only performs efficiently, but actively contributes to its surrounding ecosystem.

Through the introduction of a material passport, we supported the client’s long-term asset strategy, ensuring that the building is prepared for future circular economy practices. This forward-looking approach enhances the building’s adaptability and long-term value.

Equally important was our contribution to collaboration across the project team. By working closely with the client, architect and general contractor from the outset, our experts helped to align stakeholders around a shared sustainability vision, enabling consistent decision making and successful delivery against ambitious targets.

The completed B-One stands as a demonstration of what can be achieved when sustainability is fully integrated into the design process. It provides the client with a high-performing, future-ready workplace that reflects its identity as a sustainable bank, while setting a benchmark for climate-conscious commercial development in Berlin. The project also received the DGNB Diamond for outstanding architectural quality, alongside achieving high sustainability standards.