Project Name: SAB Office Building

Location: Prenzlauer Berg district, Berlin, Germany

Design Team: Sergei Tchoban Architects

Project Partner: Philipp Bauer

Project Leaders: Philipp Bauer, Kenan Ozan

Design Team Members: Valeria Kashirina, René Hoch, Puk Paludan, Manel Reig Florensa, Azzurra Pippia

General Contractor: OTTO WULFF Bauunternehmung GmbH, Berlin

Project Management: N.D.C Projektentwicklung GmbH, AO Berlin

Lighting Design: jack be nimble Lichtplaner & Ingenieure, Berlin

Total Floor Area: 6,150 m²

Structure: Reinforced Concrete Skeleton Structure

Floors: 5 Stories Above Ground, 2 Basement Levels

Special Features: Historical Beer Cellar Integration, Green Roof

Capacity: 400 Workstations

Completion: 2024

Photographer: HG Esch

Feature：

Project - Architect Sergei Tchoban has unveiled a striking office building in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district, where a contemporary interpretation of industrial architecture meets historical brewing heritage. The SAB Office Building, completed in 2024, stands on the former site of the Koenigstadt Brewery, one of Berlin's largest historical breweries, and masterfully negotiates the transition between past and present through its distinctive form and materiality.

The building's most compelling feature is its dynamic volumetric composition, where the upper floors execute a bold 15-degree rotation above a solid clinker brick base. This geometric manipulation creates an illusion of lightness while opening up new visual corridors to the surrounding historical brewery buildings. The facade treatment reinforces this sculptural gesture through sawtooth-like, scaly windows in dark aluminum frames, complemented by alternating two-story bay windows that emphasize the building's rotational aesthetic.

Tchoban's design demonstrates particular sensitivity to the site's industrial heritage by incorporating remnants of the original brewery's vaulted beer cellar into an outdoor space beneath the cantilevered upper floors. This architectural palimpsest creates a dramatic dialogue between old and new, while the building's clinker brick base establishes a material connection to the surrounding Wilhelminian-era architecture.

The six-story structure, accommodating 400 workstations, intelligently responds to its sloping site by embedding the ground floor half a story into the terrain. The architect has enhanced the workplace environment through thoughtful additions including a Japanese garden, a conference center with a central foyer, and a green roof that conceals technical equipment from neighboring viewpoints. Perhaps most notably, the building's glazed facades create an ever-changing display of reflections that visually weave together the historical streetscape with its contemporary intervention, demonstrating how modern architecture can both stand out and belong in a historical context.

Design Team - Sergei Tchoban Architects, established in Berlin in 1996, has emerged as one of Europe's most distinguished architectural practices, renowned for its innovative approach to contextual design and sustainable urban development. Led by founding principal Sergei Tchoban, who trained at the prestigious Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, the firm has consistently demonstrated excellence in integrating contemporary architectural expressions with historical urban fabrics.

The practice's portfolio spans across typologies, from cultural institutions to commercial developments, with a particular expertise in adaptive reuse and urban regeneration projects. Tchoban's distinctive design philosophy, influenced by his background as an accomplished architectural draftsman, emphasizes the importance of hand drawing in the conceptual process, resulting in buildings with extraordinary attention to facade articulation and spatial composition.

The firm's work has garnered numerous accolades, including the European Prize for Architecture 2018 from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, and multiple International Architecture Awards. With a current leadership team including project partners like Philipp Bauer, the practice continues to push boundaries in architectural innovation while maintaining a deep respect for urban context. Their recent projects, such as the SAB Office Building in Berlin, exemplify their ability to create dialogue between contemporary architecture and historical surroundings through sophisticated volumetric manipulation and material expression.