The important first section of OMA’s redesigned master plan for the famed Berlin department store Kaufhaus des Westens (or KaDeWe) has officially opened to the public this week after a five-year renovation effort.

Organized into quadrants, the reorganized mass introduces a smaller area plan with improved accessibility and more wayfinding. OMA is hoping to address the changes in consumer spending as well as the rise of online retail known as a threat to traditional brick-and-mortar establishments. 

“The renovation of the KaDeWe aims to redefine the dynamics between retail space, its patrons, and the urban environment, in a time when e-commerce is reshaping our relation with in-person shopping,” OMA partner Ellen van Loon offered. “The project reinterprets the fundamental elements of a typology that has remained virtually unchanged for more than 100 years.”

Consisting of a concentric void that spans six floors and holds a series of retail and event spaces, the first phase features a two-story-high exterior LED display and spiraling bank of centralized CLT-clad escalators that extend from to the top floor to the improved Tauentzienstraße main entrance below.

Proceeding quadrants will have a similar layout based around a core void and vertical distribution arrangement. Per the architects: “Each void is developed specifically to offer four kinds of distinct spatial experiences and four efficient models of organization. Throughout the nine levels of the building the voids transform in size and extension, avoiding any repetition and making every floor unique: they disappear on the ground floor, morph through the commercial areas, and — in one case only — reach the new rooftop.”

Once completed, KaDeWe will join the Netherlands Embassy and Axel Springer Campus as completed OMA projects in the German capital. A completion date was not available at press time. Additional project images can be viewed below.