Extreme cantilever alert! A four-storey block with a mirrored underside juts out from the top of a Berlin hotel, 25 metres above the ground (photos by Roland Halbe).

The huge cantilever comprises the upper floors of the eleven-storey NHow Hotel, which was designed by German architects NPS Tchoban Voss.

The end of the cantilever is fully glazed whilst the underside is clad in polished aluminium, creating a mirror that reflects the hotel roof below.

Part of the NHow chain, the 310-room hotel contains music facilities that include a ballroom and a sound studio.

Another Berlin cantilever by NPS Tchoban Voss was also featured on Dezeen this week - see our earlier story.

See more stories about cantilevers on Dezeen »

The following text is provided by the architect.

3873 Music and Lifestyle Hotel nhow Berlin
New four-star hotel

Aligning with the existing storehouses the four-star “nhow Berlin” Music Hotel by the Spanish nh-group is located between the River Spree to the south and Stralauer Allee to the north containing 310 rooms and two restaurants, a convention center including a ballroom, and offering a spa area and an underground car park.

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The structure of the building and the façade design refer to the situation of the building A huge cantilevered cube cites the motif of a crane cabin, whereas the façade’s surface mingles into the ubiquitous brown stone materiality at the formerly important city harbor of Osthafen.

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Divided into two blocks the volume accommodates seven floors forming each forming an open U-shape onto the water and connected via glass interstice.

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The western block is topped by four additional floors in a separate volume overpeering the banks. Here the exclusive nhow suite gives access to the roof terrace and has an optional connection to an in-house sound studio, cantilevered on about seventy feet and hovering eighty feet above the water.

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On street level a floor-to-ceiling glass band with large-size panels distinguishes the hotel from the neighboring old storehouses. The façade zone above is formed by perforated brick coat with irregularly arranged square windows.

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The chosen bricks vary in color as well as in their line-up adding a vivid optical brigo to the massive volume by an irregular surface. The fitted top levels (7th to 10th floor) wear a highly reflective aluminum cladding and allow splendid views to the southwest through an all-glass double façade.

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Sergei Tchoban, nps tchoban voss
Berlin:
design and construction planning (LP 1-4)
design and façade planning (LP 5)
Karim Rashid, New York: 
Interior design
Client: NDC Nippon Development Corporation GmbH
gross floor area: approx. 22.000 m²