Now that the shell of the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology is complete, a topping-out ceremony was held this Friday, October 10, 2008 on the Ebertstraße construction site in Berlin.
The cornerstone for the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology was laid here six months ago in the presence of Berlin’s incumbent mayor Klaus Wowereit as well as political and industry VIPs.
Professor Hans Georg Näder, chairman and CEO of Otto Bock and Rainer Bormann, CEO of the builder ORCO Germany, expressed their thanks before 150 invited guests. After the topping-out speech by foreman Guido Raschke, the topping-out wreath was lifted by a crane and symbolically held above the flat roof of the building.
With the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology in Berlin, which is being built in the immediate vicinity of the future Singapore embassy and representative office of the state of Lower Saxony, Otto Bock is returning to its roots. “My grandfather founded the company in the Köpenicker Straße in Kreuzberg in 1919. In 2006, we inaugurated our commitment to the capital city with the Otto Bock Lounge in the Beisheim Center. And in 2009, right on time for the company’s 90th anniversary, we are opening a unique technology showcase in the heart of the German capital with the Otto Bock Science Center for Medical Technology,” said Professor Hans Georg Näder, grandson of the company founder in his speech at the topping-out ceremony. Plans for the new building on the 850 m² lot between the Potsdamer Platz and Brandenburger Tor were developed by Gnädinger Architekten from Berlin. The façade is based on the structure of muscle fibres. Otto Bock cooperated with the renowned Berlin agency ART+COM to design the exhibition. The purpose of the exhibition is to make medical technology an exciting experience for everyone and to make visitors aware of fascination of their own physical mobility by means of sensory experiences.
