architectureinberlin

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.

I know, I know…  I haven’t blogged for ages.  Excuses?  Loads, including the fact that I’ve been writing some actual paid-for writing, which I’ll mention again (when October’s edition of Blueprint magazine come out).   And I’ve been in London, where I’m always instantly thrown by all the traffic and people, and remain in shock for about a week on my return to lovely calm, quiet Berlin.

Anyway, what better way to return to blogging with some ever-untopical IBA buildings.  Some of which I’ve written about before, but I was just passing these on the way along Kochstrasse*, coming back from the Modell Bauhaus exhibition at the Gropius Bau (previously recommended).  So a bit of a ramble.

*at least one end of which has recently been renamed, confusingly, but I can’t remember what to.

A few months back I found myself sitting next to David Mackay, of MBM architects (a friend was designing his autobiography).  He was saying that the design of one of his  Kochstrasse buildings – this one in fact:

…was turned 90 degrees at a late stage, so that if need be, allied tanks could bypass Checkpoint Charlie and head up an alleyway between his building and Rem’s next door.  Not sure how this would have worked; it seems terribly narrow. And tanks are quite wide.

While I was musing on this, I took some photies of the back of the Koolhaas/OMA building.  I like the backs of buildings.  Especially the place they keep the bins – it sometimes tells you more about the architecture than looking at the front/insides does.  It’s an early one for Mr Koolhaas, but has some tell-tale details:

Note the sloping transome bar, obscured by some cabinets:

Will do the rest of this in parts, so that I can seperately tag them, as I’m anally retentive like that.  Back shortly.

You know how it is with blogging.  You have a good idea for a post, full of wit and wry insight into the human condition.  Then half way through, your attention wanders and you happen across another blog saying much the same thing, only better written.  And featuring a moody black and white image.

There’s just such a post here, explaining the origin of a house of curiously homemade appearance, complete with vegetable garden, located on a strange triangle of land surrounded by roads on Bethaniendamm.  I’d cycled past regularly, and often wondered how it came to be there; Berlin still has many squatted buildings and abandoned industrial sites now occupied by ‘alternative’ groups, but this one lies in a much less peripheral location (so I thought) and seemed so much the work of a single creator.

The Berlin wall used to run here, and the land in question was a vacant patch up against the western side - a peripheral place – which returned to the centre with the fall of the wall.  It was apparently colonised by a local resident who has managed to hold onto it to this day, by dint of it falling between two local authorities - although it has ended up in the rather more flexible borough of Kreuzberg.  I won’t add more detail as it’s all there on the WAUA site, but I will agree with the closing sentiment that such ‘interstitial settlements’ are to be cherished.

I can’t help worrying though that there is less and less of this in Berlin; the strip of land running alongside has recently been ‘relandscaped’, and the whole area to the north and west has been, or is about to be, developed into private housing and Mediaspree-related office space.

I notice that the WAUA blog (stop me if I’m becoming obsessive here) has also covered the Alexa centre at Alexanderplatz (yep, done that one) as well as a piece on the Berliner-Schloss, which I’d planned to do shortly.  None of my posts have thoughtful black and white images, but to create added value in a crowded market, I aim to ensure that each one I do has at least two colour shots, so here’s the other one.

Admittedly it shows much the same thing, but from a bit further away.  Enjoy.