Berlin is a city of reinvention at every level—individuals come here to reinvent themselves and the city itself is always reinventing itself. With a constant influx of people coming to Berlin every year to discover its rich history, plentiful parties or simply political safety, the future of the city could go in many directions. Will housing become even more competitive? Will the city find ways to become more environmentally friendly? Will the coronavirus force the city to stagnate or will creativity continue to flourish? Right now, Berlin seems to be on the brink of another phase of reinvention.
100 Years Berlin – Unfinished Metropolis, a free exhibition at the Kronprinzenpalais that is still open until February 2021 but currently closed due to the lockdown in November, seeks to answer some of these questions by examining the last century. Unfinished Metropolis celebrates the centennial of the conglomeration of Berlin and asks the visitor to examine the past to look forward. The exhibition reviews urban planning successes and failures of the last 100 years in Berlin and also features winning entries from the International Urban Design Ideas Competition for Berlin-Brandenburg 2070. These entries provide an idea of what the city may look like in 50 years. Here’s what those winning entries propose.
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by Adri | Stories
Today we want to share with you a very optimistic and cheerful piece of art that we hope will brighten your day a little as it did ours.
We already shared with you the work of Portuguese artist and architect Bruno Pinto da Cruz a while ago with our feature about his ISOMATIC pieces and in our guide about Portuguese Life in Berlin. He has now followed up with a splendid new Berlin-themed piece of his vivid ISOMATIC series that you need to see.
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by Frank | Art, Design, Products
photos: Roger Sabaté.
For me, Kreuzberg has always been a bit of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand that a lot of people especially love this district, and I certainly have an appreciation for it, too. But to answer what’s exactly the appeal of Kreuzberg, this requires a bit of elaborating.
For a quite long time, Kreuzberg was anything but popular for the regular Berliner. In fact, in the time of the division of Berlin, the district was not exactly coveted. This might have been related to the proximity to the Berlin Wall. The small district had three sides of the wall towards Mitte, Friedrichshain, and Treptow. As history has taught us, the areas towards the wall were considered dangerous – there were cases of border patrol shooting at people on the Western side by accident thinking it was people from the East fleeing. I’m not sure if this is actually an urban myth, but it did come up several times.
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by Frank | Stories
The recent sale of dozens of iconic buildings inhabiting thousands of people along Berlin’s grand boulevard Karl-Marx-Allee by a private real estate company is symbolizing the sinister developments in the city’s housing market. But is it all just sell, sell, sell, cringe and carry on, or who has the final say here?
700 apartments in Berlin’s famous, postwar, palace-like apartment blocks along what was formerly known as GDR’s prestigious ‘Stalinallee’ change ownership. The buildings were acquired by ‘Deutsche Wohnen’ – the largest private real estate firm in the capital region, often criticized for its rigorous rental increase politics. – Oh my. I live there myself. What now?
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by Andy | People, Stories
photos: Robert Kleinfeld
Of all the things that people say about Berlin, one thing that I can hardly argue with is the fact that it’s not exactly the prettiest city I’ve ever seen. There are obvious historic reasons for that, but it doesn’t excuse that Berlin lacks a certain amount of color, expressiveness and playfulness when it comes to its appearance. It’s a shame really, there would be so much potential for it. But the architecture and city designs stays quite tame, plain and low-key.
There are a few examples that bring a bit of excitement into the cityscapes such as the many street art murals, some hidden architectural gems, a few iconic sights and a couple more interesting buildings. I’m glad we have those. But they are surrounded by so much grey it’s sometimes just hard to see them. The beauty of Berlin really often lies in the details. And for those we have to look more closely.
Photographer Robert Kleinfeld did just that for his new photo series Minimalist Architecture. With his photographs he brings out some vivid colors, fascinating textures and strong contrasts that might get lost in the bigger picture, but totally stand out when you put all your attention to them. I especially enjoy the contrasts of the bright buildings with their sharp lines and the almost stylized blue skies. It’s a pleasure for the eyes to see Berlin with such majestic blue skies after we’ve seen mostly grey in the last few weeks.
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by Frank | Photos
photo: Denis Bocquet / CC
There is a ghost in town that will probably not get busted or disappear into thin air. Every day gentrification becomes more and more a real issue transforming neighborhoods, streets, and buildings from affordable, multicultural and diverse to posh, homogenous and boring.
But the issue of gentrification is not as simple as that. It’s a complex sociological and economic challenge Berlin is facing right now and solutions from politicians and urban planners alike are more than urgent.
To understand the phenomenon from a different perspective we spoke to Itay Friedman who is not only researching and writing about urban development and architecture but also working here in Berlin as an architect.
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by Claudio | Stories
illustrations: Bruno Pinto da Cruz
In our ceaseless hunt for cool Berlin art, we stumbled upon a project we loved and thought we’d share with you: Berlin-based digital illustrator Bruno Pinto da Cruz’s ISOMATIC. ISOMATIC is a sequence of architectural drawings, transformed by Bruno into illustrations, unveiling the scenery in different colors and shapes. Among other projects, our eye was caught by his awesome Kotti illustration, the beginning of a series that is going to focus on Berlin’s iconic neighborhoods. Kotti, through Bruno’s eyes, becomes playful and flooded with color; a little Sailor Moon-y looking, which made me love it extra much. Of course, it’s not the first time Kotti becomes an artist’s muse: In the past, among others, Kotti has served as an inspiration to illustrator Nicola Napoli, in his creation of various illustration series, as well as a toy carpet by Muschi Kreuzberg.
In his latest artwork he totally remodeled the Ku’damm area around Bikini Berlin, the zoo and the Memorial Church including water slides and zeppelin. How fun!
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by Stella | Art, Design
photos: Laura Fiorio
The local architect Itay Friedman presents his top five lesser known but most appreciated buildings in Berlin.
Berlins’ urban and cultural experience is composed of numerous structures and architectural marvels, from museums to concert halls, clubs to historical structures, parks, and monuments to statues and government building. All together elegantly compose what we call and define as the rich Berlin urban cultural experience.
As an architect that has been working in Berlin for almost a decade, I find that so many unique and important buildings that contribute profoundly to our cities cultural and social growth in an unprecedented way go unknown and unrecognized.
In Berlin we can find great examples of the purest form of architecture, which unfortunately are not always in the limelight as mostly nowadays architecture is not measured and examined by its own merit but by the name of the architect him/herself.
As Tag der Architektur 2017 is upon us (a yearly event celebrating architecture), created with the support of local architects, foundations and led by the chamber of architects Berlin, I wanted to share my top five buildings that are mostly unknown and that I essentially love the most in Berlin. In my eyes, they represent uncompromised professionalism by colleagues with unwavering resolute to our field, that I am proud to work alongside in the same city.
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by Guest Author | Design
illustrations: Marie M. Benaboud
Apart from a refuge, Berlin has served as a muse to artists in search for inspiration; both by its welcoming and freeing atmosphere, as well as its exciting subject matter. And it is Berlin that inspired Marie M. Benaboud with her artistic project, Blackout Cities. The Moroccan/Swiss/Belgian architect chooses the city’s most recognizable landmarks as a theme for her project’s first series, reintroducing them to us in an imposing, yet minimal manner.
She combines architecture, photography, and illustration to imprint her unique vision on the urban landscape. Her tools to creating the enigmatic atmosphere that characterizes her work are her strong compositions, the exclusive use of black, as well as the absence of human presence. All her pieces have a personal touch as they are all handmade, silkscreen printed in her atelier in Wedding, in limited editions.
Recently, the artist announced her collaboration with of/Berlin, a store that hosts unique Berlin designs, making it easier for us to check out her work, either through the store’s website, their physical store in Kreuzberg, or through the blog dedicated solely to the project.
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by Stella | Art, Products
Photo: Heinz Funck, 1949
Soho House, an exclusive members’ club and hotel is appropriately located in a renowned building situated in the heart of the city just few steps away from Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Built in the New Objectivity style, even today still fancy and impressive, it was first opened in 1929 and had a name sounding a little less posh than the one it holds today. The “Kaufhaus Jonass” was Berlin’s first department store where you could pay in rates.
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by Michalina | Stories
