The foundations of the lift pit of our office building EIGHT AND ONE at Pariser Straße, Berlin are being casted.

The high-rise building of WATERKANT Berlin is the first that Gewobag has built in this century. In an interview, Eike Becker talks about the special features of "his" new building and about the role a new generation of high-rise buildings can play for people and for the development of modern cities.

Today's cities appear for the most part as a hodgepodge of a wide variety of materials. They consist essentially of inorganic and energy-intensively produced materials. Much of it is not healthy and not environmentally friendly. The cement industry, for example, produces three times as much CO2 emissions as all air travel. Increased use of wood can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the construction sector. Right now, we are witnessing the zero hour for high-rise timber construction in Europe. This is good news. In my column 'Building Naturally', published in Immobilienwirtschaft 11/2020, I make suggestions on how this can happen.

Our projects on the Bundesallee / Pariser Straße / Meierottostraße in Berlin are now on the construction site. It is good to see that the realization after such a long planning period is now beginning:

Stay overnight at the new Berlin Gate to the World! Located in close proximity to Terminal 1 of the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport, the Steigenberger Airport-Hotel Berlin will finally be welcoming its first guests from October 31, 2020. The modern four-star hotel, which was already completed for the originally planned opening of the BER Airport in 2012, offers 322 modern and comfortably furnished hotel rooms and suites, eleven meeting rooms and a large conference center on the first floor on a gross floor area of more than 20,000 square meters, distributed over six floors. Thanks to an Á la carte restaurant with bar as well as a spa and wellness area with separate fitness area, the Steigenberger Airport Hotel Berlin is not only particularly comfortable for business travellers, but also offers numerous amenities for private travellers. Eike Becker: "It is nice to see our architecture filling with life - not least when it is such a special project like this one in our city of Berlin. We are all the happier that after eight years of waiting, this extraordinary hotel can finally wake up from its Sleeping Beauty sleep and welcome its first guests".

The different facades for the two hotels are clearly visible. The two buildings are scheduled for completion in early 2021.

Whiny comments about dying city centers, broken windows at the market in Lüdenscheidt, closed department stores all over the country, are easy to find again. In Berlin, the Senate is letting the approval of various high-rise buildings be squeezed out of it, and in return, as if it were the Champions League, is celebrating the temporary reprieve of the closure of four ailing department stores. The end of German cities, indeed of European urban civilization, seems to have come. How I answered this question you can read in my new column, which was published in the current issue of Immobilienwirtschaft 10/2020.

The walls and columns of the first floor are already finished.

On September 17 and 18, Eike Becker took part in the Ettersburg Discussion in Schloss Ettersburg near Weimar. The topics were: Mobility, infrastructure, spaces, building for society. Our future living spaces must be actively shaped in the context of available resources, structural change, population development, energy system transformation and climate change and the associated social changes. The 12th Ettersburg Dialogue was dedicated to the potential offered by new construction and expansion, renewal and optimization, maintenance and operation of infrastructures - functional, economical, resource-efficient and worth living in. Photo credits: Ettersburger Gespräch 2020, © Axel Clemens for Bundesstiftung Baukultur

With the work exhibition in the Nidwaldner Museum, Winkelriedhaus in Stans, the Berlin architect Philipp von Matt provides insights into his current work, which ranges from the construction of studio houses to exhibition design. At the opening of the exhibition, Eike Becker spoke about his work.

Three years after Eike Becker_Architekten won an international tender for the planning of an office tower as a new landmark in the Europaviertel, the official laying of the foundation stone has now given the starting signal for the project in Frankfurt. The tower with a total of 30,000 square meters of gross floor space, which is also the new headquarters of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, will rise more than 60 meters high when it is completed in 2022. From left to right: Eike Becker Thomas Lindner, Geschäftsführer F.A.Z. GmbH Thomas G. Winkler, CEO UBM Development AG Volker Bouffier, Ministerpräsident des Landes Hessen Dr. Volker Breid, Geschäftsführer F.A.Z. GmbH Peter Feldmann, Oberbürgermeister Frankfurt Christian Paulus, Paulus² Immobilien GmbH

On 03.09.2020, Eike Becker gave a presentation to the Committee on Trade and Tourism of the International Chamber of Commerce Berlin. In the Sofitel in the Augsburger Straße he spoke about the crisis as an opportunity - what should come now. How can the inner cities not only suffer but also become better through the change in the shopping behavior of their citizens?

My colleague Dikchya Pandey recently asked me what actually is a good life. And what does the toolbox look like with which I try to make a good life possible for myself and for others. A question that is worth asking oneself. Because it is only when we ourselves have an idea of what a good life is, can we create the structural conditions for others to lead a good life. How I answered this question you can read in my new column, which was published in the current issue of Immobilienwirtschaft 09/2020.

On 09.09.2020 the foundation stone for the FAZ Tower on Europa-Allee in the Europa-Viertel in Frankfurt am Main will be laid. Speakers will include Volker Bouffier, Minister President of the State of Hessen, and Peter Feldmann, Lord Mayor of Frankfurt.

Between Hannoversche Straße and Nartenstraße in Hamburg-Harburg we are planning two office and commercial buildings, a craftsmen's yard and a production hall. The facades take up the materiality of the listed buildings of the New York-Hamburg Gummiwaaren-Compagnie. The buildings will be up to 29 m high after consultation with Hamburg's head building director Franz-Josef Höing. Our first project in Hamburg.

We submitted the Spreeturm for the Berlin Architecture Prize. There is also an audience award and we need your support - please vote for our beautiful house!

Planning permission has been granted for the office building on the corner of Meierottostraße/Pariser Straße. We are currently in the execution planning phase. Tenant and contract award negotiations are underway. The 11,332 m² building will offer flexible office space for different tenants on six floors.

The Loop_Side project in Speyer is already on the construction site. A beautiful public park and private gardens will be created in the individual quarters. The houses will be realized with low-energy technology.

The Frankfurt district of Sachsenhausen is considered a "city within the city": with its high density of bars, restaurants, hip clubs and many art and cultural offerings, its central location near the Main and the high quality of life that goes with it, Sachsenhausen is one of the most popular districts of the Main metropolis. At this point, however, the large entrance streets Stresemannallee and Kennedyallee dominate. The surrounding development is heterogeneous, indeed the individual buildings do not seem to be properly coordinated. Our task now is to heal the urban planning situation and give this city entrance an appropriate articulation.

Shortly before the completion of the Spree Tower in Berlin, Jens Willebrand took photos of the property. The entrance is already clearly visible and can fulfil its role as a mediator between the public square and the reception area of the new building. In the photos, the dynamics of a city in the making can be easily understood. The environment is under construction. New and old, underused for decades and today's demands meet each other.

In the past, too, crises have often been the obstetricians of radically new things. This could also be the case this time. The view of the cities, of the importance of economic growth, the idea of time, mobility, mindfulness, public institutions, the speed with which decisions are made and permits processed has changed. From this I have developed proposals for reconstruction after the crisis, published in Immobilienwirtschaft 05/2020.

RockyWood is an amalgamation of Rocky and Wood, two buildings that create a place for new work in the port of Offenbach. Rocky is a modern office building located directly on the waterfront. Floor-to-ceiling windows, light-flooded rooms and an unobstructed view of the Offenbach harbour, the river Main and the Frankfurt skyline. Wood is almost completely made of wood and offers a very special, warm working atmosphere. The four floors are connected by arcades, thus inviting interdisciplinary exchange. RockyWood is an office building made of wooden modules. Within the short construction period, the wooden containers are stacked on top of each other on a concrete base to create flexible office space. A total of 2,600 m³ of wood is processed at RockyWood, which binds 2,384 t CO2.

Our Waterkant project is currently being implemented. On the visualizations you can see how it should become. The entire urban quarter is planned for 2,500 people. The special location on the Oberhavel in Berlin-Spandau will characterize the location with its outstanding natural quality. The first two construction phases are nearing completion. The low energy standard, the mobility concept, socially acceptable land use and the aim of bringing different people together are the priority themes here. The client is the state-owned housing association Gewobag in Berlin.

There are turning points in life. They are happening right now. It’s unbelievable, how quickly it can happen. Our familiar world is turned upside down. From this perspective it is clear that the way we work, live, do business, use the world, treat other living creatures, and move around, is a disaster. And it can be history in no time. I write about what is coming and what I hope for, in my new column ‘What is Coming Next’, appearing in ‘Immobilienwirtschaft’ 04/2020.

"As architects, we are currently challenged to find urban-planning answers to the ongoing digitization, globalization, individualization and urbanization," explains Eike Becker. High-rise buildings can help to create missing living space in big cities.

This Friday the weather was sunny and warm. One of those Berlin afternoons when the city seemed to be a bit greener, airier and more easy going than on the days before. From the top floor of the recently completed carcass of a building the guests of the topping-out ceremony and myself had a panoramic view over the entire city. In the east we saw the high-rises at Alexanderplatz, in the west those at Breitscheidplatz. From our vantage point everything looked orderly and well placed. After the address at the ceremony the mood is quite happy when a lawyer joins us at our table. “Well, in September the HOAI will be a thing of the past” is his offensive opening. “Then the fee order for architects and engineers will be history.”

The design competition for Eike Becker_Architekten received recognition for the building competition for the 3,000 m² property on Kurfürstenstraße 72-74, to which eight offices were invited. The first prize went to Barkow Leibinger. We sincerely congratulate the very esteemed colleagues!

As part of the Day of Architecture planners and architects invite the interested public on 29 and 30 June to take a look behind the scenes of their work. The program includes around 100 guided tours, construction site tours and city walks. One of them is our project The Garden - a green residential oasis in the middle of the city.

Following exemplary cooperation with the Frankfurt authorities, we have today received the building permit for our office tower in Europa-Allee, which will become the new FAZ's publishing house headquarters.

After many years I stand at the Acropolis again, this time together with my daughter. A cool wind lets us forget the efforts of climbing the steep stairs of the Propylaea. It is getting quiet. The sea of houses below us is harmonically embedded in the valley between the barren crests of the Hymettus, Pendelikon and Parnitha mountains and from up here the city looks peaceful and almost well-ordered.

On May 27, 2019, Sven Eisle, CEO of the Berlin Civil Servants Association, together with district mayor Martin Hikel and architect Eike Becker, laid the foundation stone for a 20-storey high-rise building in Gropiusstadt, Neukölln, housing 116 affordable rental apartments of various sizes.

According to the designs of Eike Becker_Architekten, a five-storey office building is being built at Revaler Strasse 32, which is perfectly tailored to the needs of e-commerce companies, start-ups and the creative industry due to the loft-like flex space character.

We could now tell you how successful we are, what great projects we are developing, how sympathetic your new colleagues are and how fantastic the view from our office is. But we do not do it!

The construction sign is fixed. The excavation pit has been dug. The excavators are rolling. Start of construction on our cooperative project on Theodor-Loos-Weg in Berlin's Gropiusstadt.

Gewobag is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year - and our project WATERKANT Berlin plays a not insignificant role. The largest development project of the municipal housing company is not only optimally on schedule, it is also exemplary for the contract, which took over the Gewobag in 1919: to build affordable housing for all citizens of Berlin.

The conversion of the former Siemens towers at the Kaiserlei roundabout in Offenbach is progressing: the middle section of the upper five floors has been removed. The breakthrough will provide more light in the new public space.