Canada House is one of the first PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects to be realised in Germany; the State of Canada is the tenant and Hannover Leasing is the private financial investor.

The task of our office was the optimisation planning to fulfil the German building codes, to generate more efficient use and square meters of the site, to reduce the building costs by keeping the same quality standards and to prepare full execution documents followed up by the artistic site supervision.

The Canada House at the Leipziger Platz can be seen as a cultural bridge between Canada and Germany. Large window surfaces and clear-cut Canadian Tyndall Stone coming from Manitoba make the very welcoming building stand out in a row of new buildings. The reception area of the Embassy is located on the Leipziger Platz and is characterized by a water garden with a one-and-a-half-storey high waterfall.

A composition of forms, the cylinder-shaped Timber hall, the Canada Lounge on the ground floor and the Conference Room above, and the two-storey high Auditorium, connect the foyer with a public passage. Here located shops and offices are occupied by Canadian enterprises, and together with the Embassy, represent “a piece of Canada” in Berlin.

Freely rentable office space and flats on the upper floors are accessed from Ebertstraße. Facing the Brandenburg Gate and Leipziger Platz, they enjoy a special panorama.

Client: Hannover Leasing GmbH
Architect: KGS Joint Venture Architects, Toronto with Pysall Ruge von Matt Architekten
Photos: Kanadische Botschaft Berlin, Matthias Matschewski