Adapt Apartments – home for the term
The family business Helm has been designing and building for three generations. Founded in 1901, the company has now evolved into a corporate group that provides everything to do with building. Whether the development and production of own building elements; the building of single family homes, single storey dwellings, or housing estates; or their modern conveniences and renting, the proprietors Gerhard and Ulrich Helm take care of all the details, if necessary in person. Now they are building for the fi rst time in Adlershof.
The planned new buildings in Adlershof represent yet another milestone in the company’s history. For the first time, dwellings will be built, sold and rented here for “short term residence” – providing those wanting a fixed term lease as pleasant a living environment as possible. That is the concept. The company didn’t need long to decide. In Adlershof with its international alignment and excellent links to the airport, there are a lot of people looking for a home only for the limited term, a few months perhaps, until they move to their next place of employment. For these needs, six four-storey buildings with a total of 182 apartments will be built on Groß-Berliner Damm: one and two room apartments, with all of the fittings and furnishings and a professional management to boot.
For the proprietors of the group this is more than mere building. Houses plonked down and there you have it – the company abandoned that line as early as the 1980s. “Just building alone can be done by practically anybody nowadays,” explained Managing Director Gerhard Helm. “And we don’t want to be seen as just anybody. Our activities extend over all levels of building, including project development, selling and building, and the management and renting of apartments. During the project development and planning phases we already know about the difficulties of building. And when we’re building, we’re thinking ahead to renting, i.e. how the buildings will be used. That way we can provide everything ourselves.”
And something else is special: the expanded clay elements used in the apartment buildings. These prefabricated elements too are an own development that the company produces at its own facilities. “Clay has been a building material since antiquity and it has many advantages: It stops water and retains heat, and promotes diffusion for an outstanding indoor climate,” explained Helm. With these wall elements the company can build quickly and economically, and so woo investors for its new project in Adlershof. May interested tenants soon find here a home for the term!
by Tina Heidborn