This building forms a “soft link” that acts as a nodal point in the loose texture of this small town; it defines spaces and connects heterogeneous elements.

The three-storey volume thus encloses a small green to the east and defines a new open space to the north in front of the main entrance of the building. At the same time it provides a built link between the original village of Hennigsdorf and the new town centre that has developed beyond an elevated railway line and station bisecting the town. The building also mediates between the scale of the original village lining the main street and the neighbouring five-storey residential buildings from the 1970s. Finally, the soft geometry and visual permeability of the town hall’s ground floor embed it effortlessly into the spatial flow between the new town square and the village green.

The building is divided into two parts. On the upper floors, bands of offices surround an open inner courtyard, creating a ring-shaped double-storey structure. This volume floats above the Citizens’ Forum on the ground floor, where the most important public functions are located. While the materiality of the ground floor responds to the traditional brick architecture of the area, the upper ring with its glass façade has a more contemporary expression.