René Benko - Berlin penthouse

Maximum staging – and hardly any budget restrictions: we were able to live out this dream of every architect on the 33rd floor of the “Upper West” high-rise in Berlin. Here, investor René Benko had OOW build him a penthouse of the very highest class. Insights into a project that has few equals.

The story goes that a businessman, after visiting the penthouse, strongly advised René Benko against receiving anyone here. The luxury would not go down well with business partners and financiers – which, in hindsight, may well have been a shrewd observation.

Benko, the property investor who has since fallen far from grace, was inclined towards extremes – and, for his private penthouse, had a luxury suite of the very highest class built with practically no budget limits. This may have unsettled investors. For an architectural practice like OOW, by contrast, the work was full of possibilities: the interior design sets new standards in its precision and exclusivity and shows what is possible when Europe's finest trades, the highest-quality materials and technically perfect craftsmanship come together.

Across the 1,000 square metres, only the finest materials and construction methods were used: floating leather wall panels, round glass doors, a five-tonne marble counter, as well as washbasins and bathtubs milled from solid blocks of marble – all of which had to be installed on the 33rd floor, in the heart of central Berlin and with a view of the Ku'damm. The nine-metre-long dining table, over which a mirrored ceiling presides, was built using boatbuilding techniques. Its hull is made of American walnut, its top of Calacatta marble. Terrazzo with brass inlays alternates with burnished brass. And the iconic shell bed of American walnut in the master bedroom must be one of the most spectacular places to sleep in the city. The mattress, incidentally, is so heavy that changing the sheets takes several people.

This standard of perfection runs through all the rooms, with their spectacular view over the German capital – whether the expansive offices and conference rooms, the gym and spa, the three bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, the kitchen and back-up kitchen, or the lobby.

OOW was responsible for detailed design, tender and procurement, and site supervision (design stages 5-9). Three particular ways of working for which OOW is known were decisive on this exceptional project.

Complete visualisation in 3D

A 3D model was produced of the entire floor, capturing even the smallest detail – and thereby allowing no surprises to arise on site. Two examples illustrate why this way of working not only saves resources but also leads to better results: for the curved walls, which were clad in leather, it was possible to calculate directly how much leather would be needed. The joint patterns were optimised for the maximum possible leather sizes – after all, cowhides only come up to a certain size. Secondly: the 3D model reproduced exactly how the joints in the ceiling and the floor come together – on that basis, the OOW specialists in the office were able to plan the execution so that, later, on site on the 33rd floor, everything aligned to visual perfection.

A fundamental advantage of this way of working – especially for the client: before construction begins, they can explore the rooms with the help of a virtual reality headset – and gain a precise sense of the light, the dimensions and the furniture. This delivers maximum predictability, optimal plannability and certainty. The hundreds of light points fitted in the lobby, too, were positioned according to digital templates from OOW.

Perfection even in the details you cannot see

Building services engineering – TGA for short in German – is not usually considered particularly sexy by an architect. It concerns all the technical installations built into a building: dampers for ventilation and fire protection, for instance, but also sprinklers and cable schedules. OOW takes a different view here and does not deal with the building services merely “on the side”. Our approach: maximum meticulousness in the planning pays off. In the Benko penthouse we brought the space to the highest technically possible standard, without any of the systems being visible and disturbing the design. It is like a good engine: you open the bonnet and everything is neatly arranged. Our view: it is in the building services that you see whether a piece of architecture is really well made.