Half of the buildings in the district between the Belforter, Straßburger and Metzer Straße, which were for the most part cleared away due to wartime damage, were replaced in the 1960s by row buildings that dissolved the outdated urban planning structure and massively reduced the exploitation of the property. Key now is to realise an urban planning conception that offers an extensive preliminary guarantee of existence for the row buildings and nonetheless the consolidation and the restoration of the perimeter on the Straßburger Straße called for for both economic and urban planning reasons.
Spatial design
Through a slightly sculptural treatment of the street façades, the project lends the three apartment buildings realised in the Straßburger Straße a physicality that compensates here to some extent for the loss that Berlin historicist quarters have experienced through the loss of façade ornamentation and enlivening though bays and balconies. Due to the slight folding of the façades and the highly varied arrangement of façade jetties and balconies, a lively and exciting façade image is generated, a peaceful and elegant impression is strived for through rhythm and proportioning of storey-high window areas, which corresponds with the old building façades of the opposite side of the street.
Diverse ground plans
The sculptural element and the crystalline language of form are found in an enhanced form on the courtyard façades, especially on their outward turns, which distinguish the planned wings; this is because it is precisely this sculptural design idea that prompted modelling the front building and the wings as a unit. This made it possible to develop a variety of ground plan solutions for the individual apartments, and larger balconies could even be designed toward the garden side. Patio areas ultimately resulted from the recesses of the attic, especially in the side wings and on the building peak projecting forward to the property edge at the Belforter Straße. This principle of the thorough modelling of the ground plans enabled a mixing of apartment types, which also enabled the juxtaposition of the various lifestyles strived for by the client.
Lived diversity
No apartment ground plan resembles the other. The diversification of the life concepts characteristic of our time and the living space usage is thus optimally addressed. Nevertheless, the broad spectrum of individual apartment layouts is held together by the consistently crystalline formal principle.
Category
Residential and commercial building
Planning
2010–2013
Cooperation
G. Pesenti, B. Mosca and S. Stortone
Client
econcept Immobilien and Projektentwicklung KG (GmbH&Co), Berlin
