HafenCity Hamburg is located at the bank of the Elbe River. This inner-city construction project, currently the largest in Europe, features modern and sustainable architecture, such as the Unilever building designed by Behnisch Architects. The building combines climate protection and transparency using ipasol solar control glass from Interpane, and allows for high levels of daylight transmission and, low indoor lighting costs. At the same time, the company says it prevents the rooms from heating up too much on hot summer days and thereby reduces the need for air conditioning.

The new Unilever headquarters was created to resemble the cruise ships that are anchored in the immediate vicinity. The building has been awarded the golden environment award of the HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, the WAF (World Architecture Festival Award), and the international Bex award (Building Exchange Award).

According to an Interpane announcement, the façade optimizes energy balance. For example, in warm months, it minimizes the costs for air conditioning, and in cold months, its insulation value of 1.1 W/m2K (as per EN 673) keeps the warmth inside the building.

On the ground floor, the dimensioned glazing in a pillar-beam design allows plenty of light into the building. Especially in the summer months, the reflecting water caused the facade to let in considerably more light and heat, according to the company. Therefore, the planners decided to use ipasol neutral 50/27. The particularly low solar factor (27 percent as per EN 410) effectively protects the rooms from heating up too much on sunny days, helping reduce air conditioning costs.