Vorarlberg firm builds Berlin timber office for German president

A company from Vorarlberg has built a six-storey timber office building in Berlin to serve as temporary premises for the German Federal President’s Office. The project, reported by ORF, was completed in 20 months using 382 prefabricated timber modules.

Kaufmann Bausysteme, based in Reuthe in the Bregenzerwald, completed the building with Primus developments. It has 18,700 square metres of floor space, room for 179 offices and flexible event and conference facilities.

The modules form the core of the building and can be combined or separated to create group offices and meeting rooms. They sit on a base and connect to reinforced-concrete cores. The top floor uses timber elements to allow for wider spans and higher ceilings in the main halls. Inside, visible timber surfaces and coloured wall coverings feature prominently. The building uses district heating and solar power.

The project cost 205 million euros, which the company said was within budget. It was designed at Kaufmann Bausysteme’s headquarters in Reuthe and manufactured at its own plant in Berlin-Herzfelde. The factory produced up to 10 modules a day, which were delivered by truck and assembled on site as foundation work and the concrete structures were built. The company said prefabrication shortened construction time, saved materials and reduced construction-related emissions.

Kaufmann Bausysteme is also working on other large projects in Germany. For Berlin’s school construction programme, it is building up to 10 timber modular schools, each with 300 modules. The first, at Bisamstrasse and Landsberger Strasse, is operating, while nine more are under construction.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ville Campus Erftstadt, with 530 timber-module apartments and a timber-hybrid building with seminar rooms, is due to be completed by mid-2027. A student residence with 151 modules in Eichstätt and another with 450 modules in Regensburg are nearing completion.

The family-owned company expects record revenue of 330 million euros in 2026. It plans to continue its growth with further large projects in Germany in 2027, when it marks its 75th anniversary.