At Störmer Murphy and Partners, we have a wealth of expertise in urban timber construction. Meet our partner Kasimir Altzweig at the Scandinavian timber construction conference Build in Wood in Hamburg. He will be moderating the conference on the timber industry, optimising resources, redesigning existing buildings and recycling wood.

The timber hybrid building Roots with its approximately 65-metre-high timber tower is not only an architectural highlight but also an important pioneering project for the vision of Hamburg HafenCity to densify the city in a climate-neutral way. Around 5,500m³ of PEFC-certified construction timber from sustainably managed Austrian forests were used in its construction. Compared to a conventionally built structure, this saved approx. 31% CO₂ (approx. 3,520 tonnes).

“The 101 best hotels in Germany” were chosen for the fourth time. The superior hotel THE FONTENAY (interior design in collaboration with Matteo Thun & Partners), which opened in spring 2018, won the main prize in the “Best Design Hotel” category. A project that combines exclusivity, uniqueness and relaxation at a particularly high level.

The ConneXion Office building, operational since last year, has been awarded DGNB Gold and WiredScore Gold certifications. The 10-storey building covers approximately 17,000 m² of usable space. With a slightly convex main façade facing the railway tracks, the building closes the block. The side façades curve back concavely in the central area above the base, expanding the outdoor space towards neighbouring buildings and emphasising the campus character of the area. The façades are characterised by trapezoidal supports and surrounding light ceramic bands with glazed and profiled surfaces.

They characterize the Freiham district center: In total, there are 59 Nordic-white columns with a height of around 10 meters and a weight of approximately 8 tons, which are always set up alternating between load-bearing full columns and non-load-bearing half columns. The arcades connect the approximately 27,000 m² of retail space in four buildings with each other and thus build a bridge between the inner use and the public town square.

On the site at Alsterufer 27/28, where two grand villas were once built by Hamburg-based architect Martin Haller, the new luxury boutique hotel The Jefferson will be developed by Derag Deutsche Realbesitz Group. After being acquired by the U.S. government in 1950, the villas were redesigned in the style of the White House in Washington, D.C. Now, the architects from Störmer Murphy and Partners are transforming the property into a luxury boutique hotel.

“The diva-like behaviour of some architects is foreign to me. Humility is important. In dialogue, we must clarify where we are heading and present options.” – Martin Murphy discusses his work at Störmer Murphy and Partners and notable projects like Roots, THE Fontenay luxury hotel and office buildings for Helm AG in a podcast interview with Matthias Oken, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Hamburger Abendblatt.

Annette Kwee and Sascha Thran from WITTE Project Management met Martin Murphy in our Hamburg office. They discussed the evolution of BIM and AI and the demands placed on architectural firms by future generations. One prediction: up to 35% of work can already be performed by AI, and in five years, this could increase to 60-70%.

Our planet is getting warmer – that’s clear. How can we cool it down? The film shows how innovative processes are being tested around the world and has them evaluated by leading climate researchers: can biochar, which contains particularly high levels of CO₂, replace the climate killer cement in the construction industry?

Munich’s Freiham district is the largest neighbourhood development in Europe. ZAM is the name of the local district centre with 90,000 square metres of floor area where 25,000 people will live and 15,000 people will work. Our part of the project at Freiham S-Bahn station is the lively hub of the new city district. The Süddeutsche Zeitung stated: “The compact central square opens towards Bodenseestraße and is enclosed on the other three sides by large buildings. Their visual impact is reduced by the ten-metre-high arcades, which lend the ensemble lightness and at the same time link it visually.”

Yearbook of Architecture.
German Architecture Publishing House
Published November 2023
Störmer Murphy and Partners on pages 42-43

German Architecture. Time Project 1950-2025
The Focused Monographs
Published March 2023
Störmer Murphy and Partners on pages 136-151

Is there such a thing as sustainable high-rise buildings? It seems to be possible with wood as a building material. The September issue of the renowned architecture magazine Baumeister presents a selection of completed projects as well as those in planning and under construction that aim to prove that sustainable high-rise concepts do exist – including our Roots project.

Last year, the real estate and investment company Becken built the DGNB Gold and WiredScore Gold-certified office and commercial building “ConneXion Office” on one of the last available plots in Hamburg’s city center, within sight of the main train station and the art mile, and has since sold it.

“We had the idea that BIM could help us to take better care of sustainability.” – Hanns-Jochen Weyland, Associate Partner and DGNB auditor in an interview in Bauwelt.