Berlin is a city defined by an eclectic mix of style and a rich history. It's built environment has been dramatically shaped by a series of municipal construction programs, and in turn, a past of extensive demolition, planned residential areas, and diverse new cultural projects. Combined with influences across Europe, Berlin's contemporary architecture showcases new ideas on building concepts, forms and facades.
Bringing together projects that are rethinking building elevations, each of the following designs are located throughout Berlin. Literally pushing the envelope, they represent a range of formal and spatial moves across different programs and scales. At the same time, they build upon Berlin's cultural history and reinterpret past techniques and construction methods. The result is a celebration of the city's eclectic nature through architecture and the built environment.
Bricks Berlin Schoeneberg / GRAFT
On the Hauptstrasse in Berlin Schöneberg, GRAFT revitalized the historical post office premises, expanding it with two new buildings and converting the original rooftops for commercial purposes. Thus a 32,000m2 modern ensemble accessible to the public was created comprising offices, restaurants, retail outlets and apartments. The area around the building complex is one of the busiest residential districts in the city
cube berlin Smart Office Building / 3XN
This sculptural, iconic building features pioneering smart office technologies and is situated in the heart of Berlin on the historically significant site, Washingtonplatz. As one of Berlin’s new emerging public spaces, this site provides the ideal setting for this new landmark that showcases the latest advances in sustainability, design, digitization, and comfort. cube berlin is a part of the Europacity masterplan - an emerging urban district surrounding the Berlin main train station.
Axel Springer Campus / OMA
Axel Springer has launched a move from print to digital media. Its new building on the campus in Berlin acts both as a symbol and a tool in this transition - a building to lure the elite of (Germany’s) digital Bohemia. Bisected by a diagonal atrium that opens up to the existing Axel Springer buildings, the essence of the design is a series of terraced floors that together form a ‘valley’ that creates an informal stage at the center.
Labels Berlin 2 / HHF Architects
The new center for fashion, Labels Berlin 2, was conceived to provide showroom space for approximately thirty different international fashion labels. A large event area and small restaurant are located on the ground floor. The design concept responds to the architecture of the adjacent building. The interior spaces of this historical building are strongly characterized by the repetition of arched windows used in the façade.
Jewish Museum, Berlin / Studio Libeskind
In 1987, the Berlin government organized an anonymous competition for an expansion to the original Jewish Museum in Berlin that opened in 1933. The program wished to bring a Jewish presence back to Berlin after WWII. In 1988, Daniel Libeskind was chosen as the winner among several other internationally renowned architects; his design was the only project that implemented a radical, formal design as a conceptually expressive tool to represent the Jewish lifestyle before, during, and after the Holocaust.
James Simon Galerie / David Chipperfield Architects
As a continuation of Friedrich August Stüler’s forum architecture, the James-Simon-Galerie serves as the new entrance building for Museum Island, completing the ensemble between the Kupfergraben canal and Neues Museum. Together with the ‘Archaeological Promenade’, it forms the backbone of the master plan that was developed in 1999 and adopted as the basis for all further planning on Museum Island.
UP! Berlin / JASPER ARCHITECTS
In 2016 JASPER ARCHITECTS won the competition organized by SIGNA, Austria’s largest privately-owned real estate company, for an overall redesign of the former "Centrum Warenhaus" shopping mall of the GDR, built in 1979. The competition task was to present a concept to turn this massive squared building block of 80m x 80m into usable office space for the digital era.
