“The New Workplace” article series explores how contemporary offices balance flexibility, craft, and identity. From adaptive reuse to bespoke interventions, each project rethinks spatial hierarchy, materiality, and light, framing work as an experience rather than a routine. Steel, concrete, timber, and glass converge to create environments that are simultaneously resilient and human, reflecting evolving professional cultures while celebrating texture, tactility, and the quiet poetry of everyday occupation.
At the former Kindl brewery in Berlin’s Neukölln district, LXSY Architektur has transformed an existing warehouse into the new home of Impact Hub Berlin, a collaborative community and co-working space for a generation of entrepreneurs working across the circular economy, sustainable food, diversity and inclusion, and green technology. Developed within the CRCLR-House, the project places circularity not only at the heart of its programme, but also within the logic of its construction and interior architecture. Existing structures, reclaimed components, recycled materials and renewable resources are brought together through a clear and deliberately restrained design language, challenging the perception that reused materials necessarily result in a fragmented or provisional aesthetic.
“The material concept of circular buildings operates in the range between ‘using something as it is’ and ‘upcycling’. In terms of aesthetics, we consciously wanted to dispel preconceptions about second-hand design. Despite the use of diverse materials, there is a strong focus on a clear-cut, homogeneous and high-quality design.” explain the architects
Circular Construction Methods
Back in 2015, LXSY Architektur approached the interior design of Impact Hub Berlin in Kreuzberg in a participatory and sustainable way. Two years later their concept earned them the German Design Award.
Site plan
In an exploration of circular construction methods, the new location takes into account aspects such as reusing of building components, flexibility, recycling material, facilitating future usage changes and creating versatile structures.
The building’s construction is infused with an awareness of conserving resources.
The necessary retrofitting of the former warehouse and its extension were carried out by TRNSFRM eG according to the design of Die Zusammenarbeiter. Recyclable materials, deconstructable and unmixed constructions and simple standards are used for the interior fittings. With the help of product and material passports, the elements used can be repurposed after disassembly. The process itself was accompanied by various workshops to explore sustainable construction methods and experimental approaches in prototyping.
The interior design reflects how the preservation of existing buildings and the use of sustainable, renewable and recycled materials can transform tomorrow’s construction in a positive way, taking into consideration aspects such as social compatibility, accessibility, diversity, environmental friendliness, resource conservation and waste avoidance.
Structure and use of space
The former warehouse is split into two levels by the installation of a wooden gallery.
Adapted to the high level of the windows, emergency exits and the predetermined grid of the columns, accessible multifunctional rooms and team spaces are placed above and below the gallery level. Public areas on the ground floor, such as the café, are also made accessible to local residents. Other spaces are reserved for Impact Hub Berlin members.
In a nod to the history of the site, the industrial character of the existing building can still be felt.
Without the hall losing any of its spaciousness, the central rooms allow for indirect zoning. Adapted to the different needs, there are different room styles suited to either noisy or quiet working environments. The open spaces encourage dialogue with others, but also feature spaces to retreat to for concentrated work.
The result is a varied mix of team areas, open co-working, meeting rooms, lounge and a café with a terrace.
Telephone boxes, meeting booths and seating niches are distributed throughout the levels, while studios, workshop rooms and labs can be found in the basement.
Values-based design
The values of Impact Hub Berlin are incorporated into its design and are visible thanks to its transparency, openness and flexibility.
The interplay of transparent, translucent and opaque walls characterises the design of interior spaces.
Despite strong specifications such as the grid of the columns or the escape routes, the building’s use is as flexible as possible in terms of the versatility of the size of the rooms. Based on the colour concept of Impact Hub Berlin’s corporate design, the zoning is emphasised by specific colours which facilitate recognition and orientation. All rooms offer a friendly, bright atmosphere that put visitors at ease.
Reused, recycled and renewable materials
Around 70 percent of the materials and products used are recycled or sustainably sourced, with high-quality reused and new materials retained as they are, while damaged or uneven elements are carefully adapted to fit the overall design concept.
Materials and products used in the design originated from demolition sites, trade fairs, museums and company stockpiles.
The sliding doors of the telephone boxes, for example, were taken from former Impact Hub Berlin. The black MDF comes from a Berlin club. Local carpentry workshops were regularly canvassed to recycle wood offcuts and leftover pieces. The wooden standing grid with its width of 62.5 cm makes it possible to use even small offcuts of wood. Much of the furniture from old Impact Hub Berlin was kept and complemented with a mix of vintage pieces or furniture rentals. Functional elements such as cables, sanitary installations, ventilation pipes and heaters were also second-hand. Felt and straw panels are used to boost the acoustics.
The use of new materials, in the form of hemp walls for example, provides a healthy indoor climate as well as sound insulation.
Impact Hub Berlin presents circularity as a design methodology.
By preserving an existing structure, accommodating future changes of use, designing for disassembly and combining reclaimed, recycled and renewable materials, the project demonstrates how resource-conscious construction can operate alongside spatial generosity and architectural clarity. Its significance lies precisely in this balance: the diversity and imperfection of reused materials are not treated as limitations to be concealed, but as part of a carefully composed interior that proposes a more adaptable and resource-conscious model for the buildings of tomorrow.
Facts & Credits
Project title Impact Hub Berlin
Typology Workspace, Interiors, Reuse
Location Berlin, Germany
Completion year 2022
Floor area 1.780 m2
Architecture LXSY Architektur
Partners TRNSFRM eG, Studio de Schutter
Photography Studio Bowie