architectureinberlin

A brief post to say that our petition against the disfigurement of John Hejduk’s Berlin Tower is now up and running at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/hejduk/petition.html

We’re not against the renovation and improvement of architecturally important buildings, but we do feel that the city’s architectural heritage should be treated with respect, and any alterations made only after careful consultation and knowledge of the importance of a design such as Hejduk’s.

So please do sign if you feel the same way.  There is more to Berlin’s architectural history than just a baroque palace.

There is also a press release here in english and here in german.

Thanks for your support.

Jim Hudson

I’ve had an email from Renata Hejduk, an architectural historian and daughter of the late John Hejduk, regarding the ‘refurbishment’ of John Hejduk’s IBA building on Charlottenstrasse, a building which I wrote about a while back.  This insensitive alteration work, currently on site, is particularly upsetting since the building’s new owners apparently feel that their external alterations are an improvement on Hejduk’s original design, sending a surprisingly obnoxious response to Professor Hejduk when she protested to them about the changes.

As is so often the case now in Berlin, it’s all about the money (see this article). Doubtless a  number of IBA housing projects are in the firing line of rent rises and ‘upwardly mobile improvements’, forming as they did a huge programme of social housing in the 1980s across now-fashionable Kreuzberg.  Ironically, this set the scene for the gentrification process now ongoing.

If you too feel that architecture is of more value than just real estate, do get in touch with the owners, whose oddly empty site is here.

A couple of recent shots (not mine – thanks to Aida).

And how it looked a couple of summers ago when I photographed it (badly, I admit)…

I notice, as I re-read my old post, that I was underwhelmed at the time. It probably didn’t help that the development wasn’t particularly well cared for, with any trace of landscaping around it long gone, with a large vacant lot immediately to the south where further IBA projects had been planned but never built.  But since then I’ve come to think of this as a familiar landmark, and an important architectural element of the IBA, not to mention an important piece of architecture from a period not yet recognized as of real value.  Recognition will come, I am certain, but too late for many of these buildings.  See also a previous post about the fate of another IBA building, by O M Ungers.

Have also just recalled that I visited and photographed one of three other Hejduk buildings in Berlin, at Tegel harbour, known by their architect as The House for Two Brothers, in what I’m beginning to understand as John Hejduk’s strangely mythic/mystical way of translating architectural forms.

More on this issue, I hope, soon.  Will go by and photograph the state of the alterations as soon as possible, but if you’re in the area of Charlottenstraße 97a over the next few days and weeks, do please record this.

SLAB Mag are similarly concerned.

Update 1, 15 March: some photos at Flickr by Nichtwinken.

Update 2, 15 March: thanks to Ian at SLAB for these links to two of the apartments for rent, via the development company.  The first, inexplicably, describing the design as ‘Bauhaus Style’.  Hmmm.

These links are now dead (the developer has taken them off their own site – one still up here.

There’s a debate in SLAB’s comments section about the relative merits of trying to preserve such a building in its original form, when that original design was flawed in many ways. Many of the apartments were tiny, especially in the tower itself, and the south facing windows too small to let much ligh tin. Similarly the south facing balconies were too small to sit out on properly.  My view (to quote from my own comment there) is that…

The alterations are pretty minor in structural terms, so are not going to make the building something which it isn’t, i.e. fully functioning modern apartments.

Berlin is a city that’s excelled only in blandless since the fall of the wall – so yes, perhaps it is a tragedy that the varied and experimental buildings of that immediately preceded the ‘New Prussian Stone Age’ are treated with such contempt (have just read the response from BerlinHaus to Renata Hejduk, not sure if we’re able to publish this, but it’s pretty dismissive at best). There’s almost always an inventive solution if someone cares to find this – I say this not as an archi-fan but as someone who worked adapting listed buildings in London for 15 years.

Lucas’s comment that there was little commercial interest in the building as it was is true, but I’m not sure that in itself is a justification for alteration without knowledge of or respect for the original architecture. Buildings are given Denkmal/Listed status for precisely the reason that they are no longer ‘fit for purpose’ but are worth retaining (an argument not accepted by thye current UK environment minister).

Ian at SLAB has also set up a Facebook group, if that’s your thing.  It has it’s own logo, which is nice (although may not have a working link here if you’re not logged in to Facebook)

I’ve often bemoaned my own tardiness on this site in terms of keeping a log of architecture-related events going on in Berlin.  I always intend to, but it’s a task that if done thoroughly seems overwhelming.

This site however is much more successful at it (well, they have lots of people on board) – www.urbanophil.net.  In fact, I notice that they’re running a film on thursday night at the Bier Pinsel (properly the Schloss-Turm), a strange so-ugly-it’s-gorgeous-or-perhaps-it’s-just-ugly structure which you really should visit if you haven’t already.

Plus I’m jealous of their rotating tag cloud.  Oh well.

Annoyingly busy lately, hence the continuing lack of blogging, but essential to mention the next Stammtisch, which once again will be at Kim – Brunnenstrasse 10, Berlin 10119 – from 8pm. There’s no sign saying ‘Kim’ (to be extra cool) and it just opens for us on the night, so don’t be afraid to come on in even if it looks more like a meeting than a social gathering.

Everybody and anybody welcome, to have a beer and chat about architecture, urbanism and other such related Berlin things.  Generally in english, but german often breaks out in small pockets.

I’ve also set up a Facebook group for it, if you’re familiar with such things, called Berlin Architecture Circle – possibly not a great name, but I found a really good picture for it so couldn’t resist…

Hope you can make it,

Jim

H – 01577 682 7829

A brief post to mention that I have a couple of pieces in the October issue of UK-based Blueprint magazine.  One is a review of the current Bauhaus show at Gropiusbau, the other an opinion piece on what could be learned from Berlin’s IBA demonstration housing project of the 1980s (my pet subject).

Blueprint has done a kind of Berlin/London themed edition, featuring designers and architects from Berlin, as well as a piece on Tempelhof, among other things.

Available in all good bookstores in the UK, and in Berlin (at least in those expensive magazine/bookstores where you spend hours browsing all the archiporn but never actually buy anything except a couple of postcards).

News reaches me* that the Humboldt Forum, Berlin’s deeply pointless and Disney-esque plan to rebuild Berlin’s Baroque palace for the benefit of vacuous tourists, has hit a major glitch, with the winning architect being disqualified when it was realised his practice never met the criteria for entry into the competition.

A more coherent summary over at SLAB mag, and piece at der Taggesspiel (auf Deutsch).

My own previous witterings on the matter here, here and here, and a good site on the subject over at Schlossdebatte.

I can’t be the only person who’s already growing quite fond of the existence of a great big space in the centre of Berlin, complete with surviving hints of a colossal concrete basement, all overseen by the micro-presence of the Temporäre Kunsthalle.  Enjoy the view while it while it lasts.

*Quickly, for once.  The fact that’s in all the press, and several people told me yesterday, means I’m actually briefly up to date, rather than writing excitedly about something that occurred in 1984.

Thanks to Stibatz at Flickr for the image.

Here’s a funny thing.  Artist Alexander Callsen has created a scale replica of the Haus des Reisens (’House of Travel’) in Alexanderplatz, and erected it up a mountain in the south of France.

Images above, copyright Alexander Callsen.

The information he circulated is brief, but it’s part of the Horizons art festival in the Auvergne region of France.  Ends on 20th Sept, so depending on when you’re reading this, you’ve probably missed it. Sorry.

Essentially a scaffold structure has been covered in canvas with photo-images of the original building’s elevations – pretty effective, looking at the images.

The real Haus des Reisens was built by the GDR between 1969 and 1971, and stands in Alexanderplatz, a place on which I have previously wittered. I’m not sure why such a large building was needed, since most citizens of the GDR weren’t able to travel anywhere much.  Ironic then that the building itself has been on a trip, sort of.

The Haus des Reisens, back in the day.  (Image from Wikimedia commons)

The building is currently only partially occupied, with the Week12end club (sic) having two floors, including the roof terrace (worth a visit just to see the view, if you can force your way past the neverending flow of drunken italian 17-year-olds on the staircase).

A second attempt at having meetup no.4.

As ever, it’s just a few drinks and a chat, open to anyone who fancies talking about architecture and urban things in Berlin (and elsewhere), so do join us if you’re around.

This one will be on Wedensday, 16th September at 8pm, upstairs at Sankt Oberholz:

http://www.qype.com/place/492-Sankt-Oberholz-Berlin

I’ll put a sign on the table, saying ‘Jim’ or ‘Architektur’ or something like that.

Useful to know if you’re coming, so I have an idea of numbers – jim_hudson33@yahoo.co.uk.

Bis Mittwoch!

We’ve already established how bad I am at listing architecture-related events.  But by way of further proof: I failed to mention yesterday’s Lange Nacht der Museen (long night of the museums) or last weekend’s Tag der offenen Tür der Bundesregierung (the ‘Open House’ day for federal government buildings).

So let me put this right by mentioning the forthcoming Tag des offenen Denkmals, on the 13th September.  Literally the ‘day of open monuments’, it covers more than monuments, and more than one day (a great number of the buildings are open on the 12th as well.

Struggle through the typically poor website (this is Germany, so no clues given, such as images for the buildings listed) but if you can pick up the free catalogue around the city, it’s much more readable.  Especially on the bus.

Essentially, the ‘day’ seems to cover just about every building in Berlin of interest that isn’t new – so there are plenty of modern classics in there.  Most have guided tours (although generally in german).

Far too many buildings to mention here, but they include the Haus des Lehrers:

the Bauhaus Archiv, the Hansaviertel, multiple buildings on, and tours of, Karl-Marx-Allee, Scharoun’s Staatsbibliothek, Mendelsohn’s Metallarbeiter building:

…. the Le Corbusier Haus, churches, bunkers, factories, private houses and all of the major, and the recently UNESCO listed modernist estates around the city.

I’m going to have a lie down now, as have become too excited.

The recession doesn’t seem to have greatly slowed the gentrification of the poor-but-central parts of Berlin.  From where I sit, I look across the Landwehrkanal into Reuterkiez, a rapidly trendifying area of new nightlife and newly annoyed neighbours.  Old Ecke bars are closing on a daily basis, and being replaced by the Berlin cliché of bar-galleries, replete with 1970s cast-off furniture and randomly exposed brickwork.

Gentrification is most visible in Berlin where the Wall left a swathe of open spaces, which have gradually been filled in.  Nearly all will be gone within the next five years, I would guess.  Below are a few snaps I took the other evening on my way into Mitte, mainly of the sites being infilled around where the upper part of Dresdener Straaße meets Waldemarstraße (still a blank patch on Google maps at time of writing).  Note the line of the wall, visible as a double line of cobbles across the road, in at least one of these:

Here’s what I thought had happened:  in the early 1990s after the wall came down, a huge amount of capital flowed into Berlin, invested on the assumption that the newly reinstated capital would grow significantly and become a bustling metropolis once again.  The big money went into office construction and such-like (see Potzdamerplatz in particular) but was later followed by lots of smaller investors pouring their Irish and Spanish euros / British pounds into buy-to-let apartment speculation.

Then everyone suddenly remembered that Berlin had no real industry anymore (east german industry had all closed by this point).  The only ‘industry’ to speak of was government, and even then most cicil servants still secretly lived in Bonn and commuted.  Berlin had spent lots of money on its new infrastructure but recouped not much at all through business tax, and is now very broke.

Some days, all the above seems to be true.  The Berlin government certainly is broke, and it seems that a range of terrible, lacklustre designs are waved through by planners on the basis that ‘anything is better than nothing’.  The ongoing development of the Media Spree has ground to a halt.  But no-one seems to have told housebuilders, who are carrying on regardless.  There still appears to be a steady stream of luxury apartments going up, at least at all points east.  Recession-proof Berlin?  Seems unlikely.

So I welcome comments from economists,  investors, planners, architects or builders who can explain this.  Are people moving from west to east because it’s cheaper?  Are people moving back in from surrounding Brandenburg, where they spread out to over the last two decades?  Or is it just my selective perception, where I spot all of the relatively small number of new buildings going up?  Do get in touch if you know the answer.