Architectural Design drafts for new CatLab Center awarded
1st Place: h4a Gessert + Randecker Architekten © h4a Gessert + Randecker Architekten GmbH
2nd Place: Volker Staab © Volker Staab GmbH
3rd Place: augustinundfrank/winkler ARCHITEKTEN © augustinundfrank/winkler ARCHITEKTEN
4. Place: HENN GmbH, München © HENN GmbH, München
The new building will be constructed on the marked area. © HZB/Dirk Laubner
An innovative laboratory and office building for catalysis research will be built in Berlin-Adlershof: CatLab is to become an international beacon for catalysis research and drive forward the development of novel catalyst materials, which are urgently required for the production of green hydrogen for the energy transition. In an architectural competition four winning designs have now been selected. All designs include climate friendly solutions.
Novel catalytic materials play a central role in the energy system transformation. They are needed to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen and synthetic fuels produced with renewable energy. This is why the HZB, the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion and the Fritz Haber Institute of the MPG are launching the long-term project CatLab in Berlin. The physical proximity to the synchrotron source BESSY II (HZB) and the laboratories of the partners with their state of the art analysis and characterisation tools promises great synergy effects.
Designs for an innovative and sustainable building
The building is to be located at Magnusstrasse 10 in Berlin-Adlershof. In an architectural competition, designs were sought for an innovative office and laboratory building that would meet sustainability criteria and be largely CO2-neutral. The laboratory and office spaces will be seamlessly integrated into an Innovation Center and a data science platform.
Results from the architectural competition
Under the chairmanship of architect Doris Gruber, the jury made a decision on 25 and 26 November 2020. A total of 19 designs were received, which provided valuable input for the discussion.
The first prize went to the Stuttgart architectural office h4a Gessert + Randecker Architekten GmbH, in cooperation with the engineering offices Krebs Ingenieure GmbH from Ditzingen and Raible + Partner GmbH & Co. KG from Eningen. The jury emphasised that the arrangement in three (four) blocks is very positive in terms of urban development, space and function. Spaces in between create an attractive campus square. The design was also convincing from the point of view of sustainability: the building is covered with photovoltaics both on the roof surface and in the façade. The heat supply is provided by near-surface geothermal energy via a heat pump, the cooling supply by adiabatic exhaust air cooling. The wooden element construction is welcomed from an ecological point of view, but it still has to be checked whether this is also suitable for the laboratory areas.
In addition to the winner of the competition, the jury awarded prizes to three other proposals.
The 2nd prize was awarded to Staab Architekten GmbH, Berlin with Arup Deutschland GmbH, Berlin.
The 3rd prize went to augustinundfrank/winkler Architekten PartG mbH, Berlin with Kando Ingenieure GmbH, Berlin.
The 4th prize went to HENN GmbH, Berlin with Klett-Ingenieur-GmbH, Fellbach.
Finally, Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech, scientific managing director of the HZB, thanked all participants on behalf of the HZB, especially the virtual participants, and Doris Gruber for the perfect moderation of the meeting and the team of [phase eins] for the sovereign execution of the procedure. "I am particularly pleased that renewable energies and sustainability have been creatively implemented in all the designs", said Rech. "With this result, we have a basis to realise CatLab and to contribute to solutions for climate protection and energy supply with our research on catalyst materials".
- 83 pupils at Girls'Day at HZBOn 23 April 2026, the annual Girl’s Day took place, giving pupils an insight into various career paths in the fields of science and technology. 83 pupils visited the Adlershof and Wannsee sites and enjoyed a day full of exciting experiments.
- Electrocatalysts: New model for charge separation at the solid-liquid interfaceHydrogen is at the heart of the transition to carbon neutrality, as both an energy carrier and a reagent for green chemistry. However, large-scale production of hydrogen via electrolysis, as well as the production of many other chemical products, requires significantly cheaper and more efficient catalysts. A precise understanding of the electrochemical processes that take place at the interface between the solid catalyst and the liquid medium is highly useful for developing better electrocatalysts. In the journal Nature Communications, an European team has now presented a powerful model that determines charge separation at the interface, the formation of the electric double layer and local electric potential variations, and the resulting influence on the catalytic activity.
- AI-driven Catalyst Discovery: €30 million funding for German consortiumSix partners from research and industry, including Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI), BASF, Dunia Innovations, Siemens Energy, and the Technical University Berlin are launching a joint project to accelerate the catalyst discovery. The German Federal Ministry for Science, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is providing €30 million in funding for ASCEND (Accelerated Solutions for Catalysis using Emerging Nanotechnology and Digital Innovation). The research initiative targets the defossilisation of energy-intensive industries while safeguarding industrial competitiveness, with a focus on the chemical sector. The five-year project will start on 1st April 2026.