The EDGE complex is situated in the very beginning of the so-called Schöneberger Linse – an area in Berlin’s southeast between Highway A100, the 6-lane Sachsendamm Straße and railroad tracks. Situated between the roadways, this area lay undeveloped for a long time, even though in recent years Linse has been getting some office centers, shopping malls, and residential buildings. The proximity of the two thoroughfares, on the other hand, creates good transport accessibility – a hundred meters away from the EDGE Suedkreuz Berlin, there is the Suedkreuz U-Bahn station, which explains this “addition” to the name of the complex.

EDGE Suedkreuz Berlin consists of two seven-floor buildings separated by a new city plaza – its public space also serves as a pedestrian path to the station. The smaller building, named Solitaire, is essentially a single-cut parallelepiped. The larger four-section building is constructed around a spacious light atrium in a slightly asymmetric triangle with a contour that follows the shape of the site. It also received a “telltale” name of Carré.

Sergey Tchoban, TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten

Building a wooden house” has now become one of the popular dreams of a modern architect. But in this case, in addition to working with wood as a renewable resource and generally a very pleasant material, we set ourselves other tasks – specifically, to make the building easier, its construction more accurate, and the construction process faster. To lighten the total mass of materials, to reduce structures in the cross–section, and, as a result, to reduce energy costs both for construction and for subsequent operation and maintenance of the building. This is exactly the kind of almost scientific task that was set for us, including by climate experts.

Sergey Tchoban, TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten

Personally for me, this is a whole new story. Until recently, I supported and defended the fundamental values of architecture, such as materiality, tectonic nature of the building, and the depth of detailing. But any massive elements are by definition very resource-consuming. And the current prices for construction and energy, as well as the general state of the climate, do not fall in with this trend. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that architects, although they remain the organizers and catalysts of project activities, are increasingly working with specialists whose efforts are not aimed at making the building more complex and sculptural. Rather, on the contrary, buildings designed for fast and efficient construction, convenient maintenance and even, if necessary, for dismantling and recycling with minimal energy consumption are becoming more and more relevant today.