Urban infill Berlin Realized

The building fills a gap in the second row of a typical Berlin perimeter block development where inn 1906, a front and rear building were constructed, the latter of which was sadly destroyed during World War II.

The volume of the new infill largely corresponds to the pre-war development, and its S-shape encloses two courtyards within the block. Together with the street-facing exterior space in front of the front building, three typologically different courtyard situations are created, which are characterized by their different usage requirements. The theme of the courtyards and their development is conceptually explored from the public street space through the central middle courtyard to the quieter, green garden courtyard via changes in pavement, topography, furnishings, and vegetation.

While historical courtyards often represent sober functional spaces for lighting and access that hide behind the decorative facades of the front buildings, they form independent places with high spatial quality in this development, where quiet and peaceful living in the middle of the city is possible.

The rough mineral materialization and perforated facade of the building are inspired by the Berlin townhouses of the neighborhood. However, large floor-to-ceiling windows and the two-story ground floor facade allow for their own identity that does not hide behind the front building but allows for its own address at the courtyards of the development.

The mix of 24 units is versatile and ranges from single to family apartments. The clever configuration of duplex apartments on the ground floors around the courtyards allows for inner-city ground floor living with plenty of privacy and private access. A large through-passage entry hall functions analogously to the passage in the front building and connects the courtyards with each other. In the materialization of the interior spaces, many surfaces are left rough to not hide the dwindling artisanal traces in modern apartment construction and to maintain their essential nature as an atmospheric element.