Hamburg, 25.10.2018. Two DGNB awards in the "Gold" category go to the Hamburg project developer Becken: The listed "Finland House", the current headquarters of the Becken Group, and the neighbouring "Esplace" office building were yesterday awarded for their outstanding sustainability quality. Dieter Becken accepted both certificates in the Finland House at Esplanade 41. After an extensive renovation phase, the company moved into this building in June 2017 as its corporate headquarters.

"We are very pleased about this award and see it as confirmation that we are on the right track with our claim to sustainability and energy efficiency in construction quality," says Dieter Becken, managing partner of Becken Holding. "Especially in the case of the 'Finland House', this certification is preceded by a complex revitalization process," emphasizes Becken. "The award of the DGNB certificate is the result of an extensive process and the best proof that a building has a high, holistic sustainability quality," says DGNB Vice President Hermann Horster. "In this respect, I can only congratulate the project participants, because it shows that the values of sustainable construction are important to them.

The listed "Finland House" on the Esplanade, where the Outer and Inner Alster meet, is a landmark in Hamburg's city centre with its striking architecture. Both the original façade of the thirteen-storey office complex from 1966 and numerous stylistic elements inside the building have been preserved. Remarkable is the restoration of the original façade as well as the fact that the building is optimized in energetic, technical and structural terms as a contemporary multi-tenant building.

Marc Holzhausen, Member of the Management Board of Becken Development, adds that the example of the "Finland House" once again showed how sustainability and energy efficiency can be reconciled with the protection of historical monuments. At the same time as the refurbishment project, the neighbouring new office building "Esplace" was also completed at the end of the second quarter of 2017, which has now also received DGNB certification in "Gold".