Project Description

On the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Sony was building its European headquarters on the site of the neo-Baroque Kaisersaal building, which is part of the luxury war-damaged Hotel Esplanade.
To preserve these historical monuments, the city council required to integrate them into the Sony complex. In addition the Kaisersaal was blocking the construction of an important road. So it was decided to relocate the Kaisersaal about  75 m.

Sony entrusted Ed. Züblin AG with the relocation works. These consisted in strengthening the fairly fragile two-storey building (14 x 17 m) and underpinning it with a grid of massive post-tensioned beams. Once the building had been lifted, sliding tracks could be extended underneath.

VSL Heavy Lifting specialists developed the lifting concept, which consisted of jacking up the 1,300 t building by using VSL strand lifting units. 13 SLU 330 type units were used to form 11 lifting points. The hydraulic pump scheme and the computerised control system, using laser technology, were both designed by VSL. After 5 days of assembly work, the Kaisersaal was raised off the ground and slided to its final position.

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