Sauerbruch Hutton is an international agency for architecture, urban planning and design. It was founded in London in 1989 and is now based in Berlin, Germany. The practice is led by Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton and Juan Lucas Young. Architecture The office's best-known buildings include the GSW Headquarters in Berlin, the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau and the Brandhorst Museum in Munich. More recently, the Experimenta Science Centre in Heilbronn and the Museum District M9 in Venice Mestre were opened. Outside of Germany the firm has worked on projects in the UK, Finland, France, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Early work The firm's first offices were located in London, where both founders were engaged in teaching roles. Many of their first commissions were in relatively confined urban areas, such as L House in London. A typical Victorian terrace, this was the practice's first essay in applied colour. The architects used colour to visually expand the cramped spaces. Early competition entries for Paternoster Square in London (1989), Tokyo International Forum (1989) and the Junction Building in Birmingham (1989) all offered socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable alternatives to the conventions in architecture and planning at the time. The GSW Headquarters The GSW Headquarters is situated 250 meters from Checkpoint Charlie. It was the first tall building to rise in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The winning competition proposal by Sauerbruch Hutton was a critique of the "Critical reconstruction" established by Hans Stimmann, Berlin's building director from 1991 to 2006. Major works In the works that followed, they continued to develop sustainable buildings as well as the use of colour as a building material on projects throughout Europe. The Federal Environmental Agency in Dessau (2005) was a benchmark in the design of sustainable office buildings. A serpentine plan fosters a personal, corporeal perception of the building as one walks along its length – an uncommonly sensuous gesture for an office building. Printed glass emerged as one of the practice's research interests, with their Pharmacological Research Laboratories (2002) and Jessop West (2008) and Cologne Oval Offices testing new potential for the material. In 2008, with the Brandhorst Museum, Sauerbruch Hutton also began exploring the applications of glazed ceramic as a facade material which is being continued in the development of the M9 Museum in Mestre/Venice. Recognition The firm's GSW Headquarters won the Berliner Architekturpreis and Deutscher Architekturpreis, as well as several RIBA and