BSU Hamburg

Bold, cheerful, positive and optimistic - these are all words that convey the overall impression of the new building. The ensemble is completely enveloped in a polychromatic façade. On each floor, continuous aprons with a total length of around 900 metres and made from ceramic cladding glazed in bright colours, make their way around the entire building, lending it an unmistakably cheery character. Using five different shades of blue, red, yellow and green, the cladding features a total of twenty different colours. The façade is uniform, easy-to-understand, and breaks down into numerous colourful elements representing the diversity of nationalities, languages, religions and personalities that come together here. The colour distribution is based on a carefully planned concept that was devised by architecture firm Sauerbruch Hutton and supports the architectural impact: ‘Peaks’ of colour, each in one of the primary colours of red, blue and yellow, accentuate the ends of the low-rise building (blues) as well as the front (reds) and rear (yellows) of the high-rise building. Between these strong colour accents, gradual colour gradients blend varying degrees of the individual colour shades.