Zalando BHQ-Z Building, Berlin Modern Office Building Photos, German Interior Architecture

Zalando BHQ-Z Building in Berlin

post updated 17 August 2025

Architects: HENN

Location: Berlin, Germany

For German online fashion and lifestyle platform company

Renderings by HENN

28 Mar 2022

Zalando BHQ-Z Building, Germany

HENN’s Zalando BHQ-Z Building is currently under construction in Berlin. BHQ-Z will complete HENN’s three-building headquarter complex for Zalando, one of Europe’s leading online platforms for fashion and lifestyle. The BHQ-X and O buildings were completed in 2019 and the BHQ-Z is scheduled for completion in 2023. The design declares the city’s identity as a global tech hub, while staying true to its Berlin roots.

The building’s z-shaped plan is a contemporary twist on the traditional Berliner block. The interior courtyard, normally a private space, playfully shifts to the perimeter of the site to create an inviting and dynamic street-frontage. The building’s courtyards appear as excavations from the building’s massing. Wrapped in highly-transparent glass, the building’s distinctive voids enter into a dialogue with the neighboring buildings and urban context.

Martin Henn, HENN Managing Director and Head of Design: “The BHQ-Z Building is a next-generation work environment whose architecture completely dissolves the boundaries between fixed and collaborative workspaces, public and private, digital and physical. The office has become a true place of exchange.”

The two spiraling atriums organize the office physically and conceptually. The full-height atrium, located directly across from BHQ-X, is open and accessible to the public; the second atrium, which is open from the third floor to the top floor, will be used primarily by employees and collaborators. Together, they create an open and communicative space with a high-degree of visual and physical connection between the floors.

Occupants circulate through the center of the building, at the pinch point between the two voids. This area is the social heart of the building, while quieter, more secluded spaces are located along the periphery of the floors. The facade reflects the interior organization with a gradient from more traditional windows at the workstations to full transparency at the atriums.

The BHQ-Z Building relies on three-dimensional space, rather than interior partitions, to create different zones of use and organize workspaces. The architecture translates the digital commons of the internet into a physical workplace, allowing for the effortless flow of
information and exchange of ideas. The design is the result of HENN’s decades of expertise designing future-oriented work environments and the firm’s concept of Office Urbanism.

Office Urbanism understands the office as a kind of micro-city; a flexible setting for a wide range of activities, with a gradient from private spaces to more public ones, enabling workers to participate in the urban life all around them.

Zalando BHQ-Z Building in Berlin, Germany – Building Information

Architects: http://www.henn.com/en#design
Year: 2022
Typology: Office
Client: Zalando
Location: Berlin, Germany
Area GFA: 17, 134 m²
Status: Under Construction
Consultants: MuP Braunschweig (TGA), Lumen³ (Lighting design), Werner Sobek (Building
physics), Werner Sobek (Structural engineering), Werner Sobek (Facade planning)

Team
Team: Daniel Festag, Reiner Beelitz, Martina Fabre, Michael Sadomskyj, Emiliano Lupo, Klaus Ransmayr, Dirk Breuer, Ralph Hempel, Anne Henkel, Daniel Recklingloh, Silvia Forster-Golm, Peter Lee, Anatolii Romanov, Andre Serpa, Denise Gellinger, Nora Graw, Martin Erdinger, Oliver Koch, Matthias Palloch, Georg Pichle

photograph of the ceremony: HIH Invest Real Estate