The ambitious office hub SPARK located in Berlin, Germany, is one of the first high-rise buildings in hybrid construction in the market. The seven-story building with distinctive façade elements will be completed by mid-2024 and it has around 13,600 m² of flexible office and conference space. Peikko delivered nearly 2 kilometers of DELTABEAM® Composite Beams for the project.
SPARK is well located with highway access and public transportation nearby. The developer of the project is Townscape & Gateway Real Estate, and the construction company is Köster GmbH. The main architect is K6 Architekten and R & P RUFFERT Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH is responsible for the structural design. Thanks to the use of wood SPARK is visibly a very attractive building but also expected to be awarded DGNB Gold certification thanks to its sustainable design.
Hybrid construction benefits
SPARK will be built in an innovative wood-hybrid construction method. This mix of materials benefits both tenants and the environment; it matches the static load capacity of concrete with the ecological advantages of wood. The hybrid construction also ensures savings in time, energy, and CO₂. The hybrid construction consists of Peikko DELTABEAM® edge and center beams and wood-concrete composite ceilings in slim-floor construction.
Conventional construction with steel and concrete is characterized by high consumption of resources and energy. That's why SPARK also uses renewable and recyclable wood as an ecological alternative. Building with wood saves enormous amount of time thanks to the option of prefabricating components. Load-bearing walls and façades, including the windows, can be prefabricated precisely and independently, brought to the construction site, and used there without delay. The outstanding insulating properties of wood reduce the energy required for air conditioning in the interior. In addition, the natural building material ensures a healthy room climate, optimal humidity, and thus a high feel-good factor.
“Though building wood-hybrid structures is a common trend in the German construction market, wood only is not enough. Only when combined with the strength and fire resistance of steel and concrete, one can reach optimal outcomes. Currently, Peikko’s DELTABEAM® is the only solution in the market that enables hybrid construction for such a high building including a fire resistance of R90, a span length of 8-10 meters, and a slim floor solution of only 30 cm. It just isn’t possible with anything else”, emphasizes Marvin Vollbracht, Project Manager at Peikko Deutschland GmbH.
Peikko already participated in the design phase of the SPARK and helped the designers to create both flexible and reliable hybrid structures. This means that in addition to the use of the CO₂-friendly material wood, the building height is also optimized, and, in many places, savings can be made on vertical components such as façades. Besides the climate-friendly ceiling system, DELTABEAM® allows for easy assembly and fast erection.
Vollbracht continues: “SPARK was made possible by a tight collaboration. And the end result is just stunning. Many local design offices have contacted us as they desperately want to visit the site; the project in its scale is very special to the German market.”
