Shared ENSO and DREWAG headquarters
Groundbreaking ceremony for high-rise in Dresden
As a result of the coming together of ENSO Energie Sachsen Ost AG and DREWAG-Stadtwerke Dresden GmbH, the two companies are creating a shared headquarters building. The office building designed by Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) will have over 900 work places and supplement the current seat of ENSO to the south of Dresden’s main railway station. On May 15, 2020, Dresden’s Lord Mayor and chairman of the supervisory board, Dirk Hilbert, and the CEO of ENSO and Managing Director of DREWAG, Dr. Frank Brinkmann, together with gmp Partner Stephan Schütz and gmp Associate Partner Christian Hellmund, celebrated the groundbreaking for the new building. Completion of the building, for which gmp has been appointed for the general planning, is scheduled for 2022.
The outstanding feature of the design is the metal/glass external envelope, which opens up the new office building to its surroundings. In 2017, gmp had initially won first prize in the facade competition for an already defined building structure. Subsequently, the architects—in cooperation with the clients and the Dresden Town Planning Department—developed a building volume that creates optimized conditions for a modern work environment. In addition, the design makes a valuable contribution to the debate on high-rises in Dresden, a contribution that has been adopted as part of the criteria for future designs of high-rises in the city. The concept is based on a clearly structured block edge development with two high-rise points in a landscaped, publically accessible inner courtyard that improves the natural lighting to the work places located along the inside facade. The two tower blocks, with 14 and eight stories respectively, are accessed independently from the courtyard. The height of the buildings, with 51 and 30 meters respectively, reflects the urban design context and marks a focal point that visibly emphasizes the new Saxon enterprise at the southern approach road to Dresden’s inner city.
