New NDR building in Hamburg: von Gerkan, Marg and Partners plan the new media house

The new NDR building will be realized by gmp architects.

NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) is having its new building for a cross-media programme house in Hamburg-Lokstedt planned by the architectural firm gmp (Meinhard von Gerkan, Marg und Partner). The selection of the design was made unanimously by the jury chaired by NDR Director-General Joachim Knuth. The decision-making committee also included Hamburg’s Chief Building Director Franz-Josef Höing and Rolf Schuster, Head of the Department of Economics, Building and Environment of the Eimsbüttel District Office.

The new construction became necessary because a high-rise building had to be closed at short notice in November 2018 following asbestos findings. In the new building at the Hamburg-Lokstedt site, editorial offices will plan and produce content jointly for all playout channels, i.e. for television, radio and online.

New NDR building in Hamburg : von Gerkan, Marg and Partners plan the new media house

The architects were able to convince the jury with their design for “House 24”. On the premises of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Lokstedt, the existing ensemble is continued by the new building, which forms the first building block of the planned extension.

New NDR building

Lokstedt NDR © gmp

The entrance situation of the NDR site will be spatially defined to the east and offers the possibility of connecting the new work areas with the old stock in the future. The planned expansion is characterised by flexibly designed office and production areas with plenty of daylight, sustainable low-tech building equipment and the highest possible proportion of recyclable building materials.

With a gesture of welcome, the U-shaped building opens to the south, thus interlocking the architecture with the park-like surroundings. The main entrance to the new building is on the north side on the east-west running “Boulevard”.

The façade design is based on the predominant horizontal arrangement of the surroundings. In order to structure the six storeys, the upper five storeys are separated from each other by circumferential facade bands. With room-high glazing, the ground floor is visually set apart from the higher floors with light-coloured facade elements. The entrance façade is offset inwards and thus becomes a weather-protected entrance. This leads to an elongated foyer, which connects both vertical access cores. The large south-facing conference rooms can be varied in size by means of mobile partition walls or the foyer can be generously extended. Direct access to an outdoor terrace is planned from here.

The architects were able to meet the demand for high flexibility in office and production areas through the dimensions of the building. Thus, various office organisation forms from cellular offices to combi offices to open-plan offices or even mixed forms can be realised.

The new program house is to offer space for more than 550 workstations. Completion of the new building at the NDR site in Lokstedt in the Hamburg-Eimsbüttel district is scheduled for autumn 2023.

Lokstedt NDR © gmp