FREE FROM HIERARCHIES: “TAZ” PUBLISHING HOUSE IN BERLIN

Ideological employers are complex. While normal companies may not believe everything they preach to the public, companies with true concerns see this differently. And when the left-leaning newspaper “taz” needs a new office building, this presents an especially difficult architectural challenge.

A proven architectural design method among branded products is “storytelling”. Spaces should convey what the product and company stand for. No one actually cares that the story is usually just made up. Employees know it, customers suspect (but would prefer to be lied to about their skin creams). But things get more complicated in cases like those of the Catholic church, or the “taz”. Both employees and customers (that is the believers or the newspaper readers) trust the substance of the story and have an allergic reaction to lies and inconsistencies. The Catholics have a written foundation that has been in place for 2000 years. By contrast, the ideological left/green leaning setting that has flourished for 40 years at “taz” is both heterogeneous and belligerent, and its beliefs are ever-changing. The paper’s architectural selfportrayal is a tough nut that had to be cracked when it decided to find room for around 250 employees in a new location owned by the publication.

Showcase project

Leaving Kreuzberg’s biotope was difficult to imagine. This is why they constructed a remarkable new building on the abandoned space of a flower wholesaler by the end of 2018, just a few steps away from the old location and in view of its frenemy, the “Bild” newspaper. After all, “taz” isn’t just any old company. Under ever more difficult journalistic conditions, it is a media showcase project of admirable independence, one that readers and followers believe in. It’s only natural that the method of church building was suited for designing the “taz” building, considering the analogies. Just as traditional Christian semantics are over the top in a house of God, drawing on common symbols familiar to believers, E2A Piet Eckert und Wim Eckert Architekten trusted the taz’ obvious ability to “interpret” the draft by using their trusted imagery as signifiers. The chronically underfinanced “taz” media project carried by almost 19,000 partners definitely does not have money to waste. This is the reason net-like statics were selected, requiring as few components as possible whose surfaces do just fine without finishing. Instead of posh offices, the atmosphere is more ‘rough workshop’. Bold efficiency is written all over the building.

A Berlin of stone? Not if the new “taz” publishing house can help it.

Iconographic

Described by the architects as a “hierarchy-free system,” the statics consist of elements “where all parts have to deliver the same performance and only achieve stability together”. The founding generation of the “taz” couldn’t have put it better themselves – back then, everyone was paid the same salary, from the office messenger to the editor in chief. And the sophisticated, iconographic facade was simply a reminder of early Soviet constructivism. But it’s a bit lavish for the smokers’ balcony. Inside, the red floor dominates as the sole colour. It’s justifiable to ask whether blue, black or brown were even taken into consideration. The custom-developed cafeteria furniture labelled with the “taz” paw print is vaguely reminiscent of Bauhaus forms, and those looking to secure themselves a souvenir after visiting the press are welcome at the “taz” memorabilia shop. (No, it’s not a subsidiary of Manufactum!) This shop peddles ideological keepsakes that reflect the founding principles of the “taz” community as much as the entire office building does.

Surprising: Shrines reminiscing of deceased editors are spread across the meeting room.

The raw support structure is visible everywhere in the building.

The panorama office offers space for events, as well as for yoga and table tennis matches.

The public canteen feeds more than just the editors at lunchtime.

The canteen can be divided into different rooms. “taz” events also take place here.

Shelves separate the open offices into different workspaces

Schörghuber expertise:

Acoustic-rated and composite timber doors

The fact that the “taz” doesn’t have much to go around but still wants to stand for a certain level of quality is reflected in its publishing house. No pageantry, no swank – the newspaper requested an open workshop. Though there’s lots of free space, doors were still a must. However, they had to match the architectural concept, which is based on the rawness of a workshop: exposed, unfinished concrete. Many of the doors and steel frames are coated in various matching grey colours depending on their function. The T90 firerated door, for example, is darker than the doors without function. The acoustic-rated doors and composite timber doors featuring a twomillimetre-thick aluminium cover also have a grey tint. Several of the doors are painted in different colours on the hinge and opposite hinge sides – some in a surprising Traffic blue. All the doors have concealed hinges and closers, locks with low-noise latch and a premium coating. The only exception: Two composite timber doors have a timber frame and VX hinges as well as an HPL surface coating.

The building has an elegant appeal despite its workshop character. The simple Schörghuber doors play a part.

The subtle grey of the doors matches the raw concrete walls

Several doors are painted in a bold blue on one side.

Location: Friedrichstraße 21, Berlin, DE

Schörghuber products: T90 fire-rated door, acoustic-rated doors Rw,P = 37 dB, composite timber doors, timber lining frames without decorative rebate

Hörmann products: 2-part steel profile frames with bracket clamp fastening for retrofitting