Loft House Elbberg

One of the advantages of the architectural profession is not only improvisation but also the ability to see potential in places that most of the population lets lie fallow. Transforming fertile land outside the city into building plots is rather sinful, but purchasing a plot where you can't even park a car and building a seven-story office building with loft apartments on it requires a lot of experience and courage.
A prime example of building under nearly impossible conditions is the own studio of Iranian architect Hadi Teherani in the Altona district in western Hamburg. In this port area, Teherani's studio has realized a number of administrative and residential buildings over the past three decades. The narrow plot of land, narrower than the famous “New York Iron”, complicated the significant height difference. The ground floor of the building remained free so that cars could park between the inclined concrete columns. Ultimately, it was possible to extract 2,800 m² of office space over seven floors on the residual plot of 400 m². The building has two faces. While the southern façade is completely glazed, the rear northern façade facing Elbberg (the Elbe mountain) consists of square copper panels. The river-facing side is slightly wavy, resulting in five additional corners. The opposite side of the building, with its small oval windows, evokes nautical architecture.
After completion, it received the Building of the Year award presented by the Hamburg Association of Engineers and Architects, and two years later it was awarded by the local BDA architects' association.
The fact that this is an exceptional project in the nearly thirty-year career of Hadi Teherani is evidenced by the fact that the Elbberg loft house underwent reconstruction in 2011 under the supervision of the authors, and currently, Teherani's studio occupies four of the seven floors.