AMAZON TO ‘ANCHOR’ EAST SIDE TOWER IN BERLIN | BIG

Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG has unveiled design for a new office building in Berlin, the 140-m tall high-rise will be built in Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany. Amazon, a multinational tech giant company, will occupy 28 of 35 floors for its growing team of up to 3,400 employees - Amazon has been confirmed as the main tenant of the office building.

Named EDGE East Side, the project is being developed by EDGE - a real estate technology company of OVG Real Estate - and Amazon plans to move to the building in 2024. The 35-floor tower is located in a square between Berlin Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.

BIG designed an office block that features an indented profiles and gaps throughout the building, the tower is designed as "a smart building with a tech infrastructure that helps ensure energy-efficiency and sustainability."

"They will be able to follow circular economy principles helping reduce the amount of waste ending up on landfill, amongst other things," said EDGE in its blog post.

EDGE also stated: BIG's building shares the principles of the latest high-rise guidelines "Hochhausleitbild" being developed by the Berlin municipality.

The office tower will have services and spaces for versatile usage across the first five floors, available to companies of all shapes and sizes and also semi-public use. In some areas, culinary and campus will merge to create dynamic networking or social spaces, mainly aimed at the building’s community.

Part of the campus will offer workplaces and meeting rooms, available for limited periods free of charge for organisations or individuals who focus primarily on issues such as sustainability, education or social issues.

Essential areas of the first four levels, as well as the 35th floor, will be open to the public and filled with life and creative outlets. It will also provide space for service providers, for example local coffee or bike shops, from the surrounding neighbourhood community.

"The EDGE East Side building will serve as a new connection between the business and entertainment district at the Mercedes-Benz Arena and vibrant centre of Friedrichshain north of Warschauer Brücke," added EDGE.

EDGE East Side is designed as "a user-focused building" and is aimed to reduce carbon footprint. On an infrastructure level, the technology used inside will make the building more energy-efficient and healthy; as it tracks and adjusts lighting according to building use, automatic adjustment of fresh air supply depending on number of people currently occupying a meeting room.

"Employees will experience personal environmental control: through a mobile app users can individually change the light and temperature settings in their immediate surroundings, as well as book a room or space for their meeting, find a free space to work at, search for the location of a colleague they need to talk to, and find a locker for their belongings."

"And as EDGE stays involved in the project, we will work with Amazon and other tenants on building data analysis, and will continually optimise the building’s operation, ensuring the best experience possible for employees and companies—and that sustainability goals continue to be met," continued EDGE.

East Tower Berlin is scheduled to complete in 2023, with move-in planned for 2024.

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