Zollernhof, Office building in Dorotheenstadt, Berlin, Germany.
Zollernhof is an office building and architectural heritage monument on Unter den Linden in Berlin-Mitte, made up of an original historic structure and an eleven-story U-shaped addition built around it. A glass-covered internal courtyard links the wings and allows natural light to reach the deeper parts of the complex.
The complex was designed by architect Thomas Baumann to house the Berlin studios of ZDF television and the headquarters of VEBA AG. Rather than replacing the existing historic structure, the project kept it in place and built a modern extension around it, a common approach in post-war Berlin.
The building sits along one of Berlin's most recognizable avenues, where its glass-covered courtyard brings daylight into workspaces that would otherwise be enclosed. Passersby can see how a protected historic facade and a contemporary office structure share the same footprint without one overwhelming the other.
The building is reached from Unter den Linden, and its layout extends several levels below ground, so a large part of the complex sits underground. Since it is an active office building, access to the interior is generally restricted, and a visit is best kept to the exterior and the street-facing facade.
Several television studios are built into the lowest underground levels of the building, with one larger studio at ground floor level covering over 300 square meters. This setup allowed the whole complex to operate as a self-contained broadcast center for many years.
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