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.

100th Bauhaus anniversary. 50th anniversary of Walter Gropius's death. Against this background, our project on the Theodor-Loos-Weg, which picks up on Gropius's idea of ??a leap and introduces it to the modern age, is given a very particular topicality.

In Ludwigshafen, our residential district HEIMATUFER forms the entrance to the newly developing South Bank of the Rhine. A first impression of how the project will look after completion is provided by the new video by the developer Deutsche Wohnwerte.

According to the energy concept of Bahnstadt, the COLOURS was built in passive house construction. Specifically, this means that the building ensemble may consume about 80% less heating energy than "normal" new buildings. This claim is already ambitious for residential buildings, but represents a particular challenge for office and commercial space.

Eike Becker on trade halls 2.0 in the magazine immobilienmanager, which deals with the main topic Mixed Use in the April issue. Given the lack of space, mixed uses are the order of the day - distributed in the quarter, stacked in high-rise buildings or hidden in backyards.

The MIPIM-winning Woodie concept will be transferred to the office building segment in Offenbach. At the old harbor "Rocky Wood" is being built, modern offices in wooden module construction - designed by Eike Becker_Architekten.

High-quality architecture with a modern space utilization concept and sustainable energy supply: WATERKANT Berlin is a flagship project involving many creative minds. Including the Berlin architectural office Eike Becker_Architekten who have worked out the concept of the first subproject.

Eike Becker_Architekten and Hadi Teherani Architects won first prize in an international competition for the new headquarters of the National Iranian Gas Company in Tehran. The jury was convinced by the holistic approach, which is dedicated to the central principles of Iranian architectural history leading them into modernity.

Eike Becker_Architekten convinced with their design for the 70 meter high boarding and office tower A-TOWN HIGH in the Augsburg Innovation Park. The invited offices included Studio Libeskind from New York, Henning Larsen from Copenhagen, and Allmann Sattler Wappner and Kupferschmidt Architekten from Munich.

Eike Becker_Architekten in the category All Eyes on German Architecture 2019 of the current issue of the magazine discover GERMANY, Switzerland & Austria. The bilingual magazine reports monthly on the latest trends in architecture, design, culture and business.

We fought. We sweated. And we won. The trophy once again decorates our office – and has to be defended on 7 September 2019.

The winner of the architectural competition for the residential high-rise at Frankfurt's main railway station, sponsored by Groß & Partner and PHOENIX Real Estate, has been announced: congratulations to the colleagues from Mecanoo. The design by Eike Becker_Architekten made it onto the shortlist.

The mood of a new beginning would not be expected in the newspaper industry at present. According to the general findings, digitisation leads to the loss of subscriptions and advertising customers. Still, construction is strong. A number of media companies are moving into new locations in Germany at the same time.