When Amt Zarrentin, around 70 km east of Hamburg, wanted to build new administration offices, it chose ppp Architekten, which has offices in Luebeck, Hamburg and Hanover. The location was a given - and demanding. The new building was to be part of an ensemble of historic, listed buildings, several of which house council functions. It also had to fit the footprint of the old barn demolished to make way for it. The existing ensemble consisted mainly of elongated buildings. It occupies a beautiful scenic spot, a few metres from Lake Schaalsee, and is grouped around a green square dotted with trees. The older buildings, several of which date back to the 13th century, include the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul and the wing of a former monastery, now home to a library, a monastery museum and county council offices. It was a proviso that the design and materials would blend into the historical setting. All the neigh- bouring, centuries-old buildings are in red brick, and most of them have half-hipped roofs with red tiles. The new building measures 29 × 12,5 metres and has a 9-metre-high, glazed roof. A combination of the lack of a visible base and the half-hipped roof imbues the block with a sense of mass and solidity, echoing its neighbours. Red tile was an obvious choice for the roof and facades, and the choice of Cover as cladding for the whole body endows it with a modern idiom and a distinct identity of its own.
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