‘Design & Architecture’ Archives
Berlin’s Bunkers
Swedish architect and author Fredrik Torisson profiles Berlin's bunkers... Berlin is full of bunkers. Some are more visible than others and some have even become topography rather than buildings. Obsolete bunkers are relics that tend to remain standing regardless of circumstance; being difficult to demolish is as much a part of their nature as their ability to be camouflaged is, which makes them a series of half-invisible and more or less eternal relics. As a building typology, [...]
Onkel Toms Hütte
Natalie Holmes unearths the intriguing story behind Zehlendorf's most singular housing estate... Imagine this: in 1925, 70,000 Berliners lived in basements and about 600,000 people inhabited rooms shared with three others. Many apartments had little or no heating and the lack of running water made for appalling sanitary conditions. In winter the apartments were damp and icy. In summer they were unbearably hot. Times were tough, so in order to survive, women and children frequently [...]
Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände
The snappily-titled Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände is a not-so-well-known 18-hectare urban park at the southern end of Schöneberg. The park has blossomed from the ruins of an old railway hub that was built in the 1890s, and which for 70 years operated as one of the city's busiest (including during WWII). The area was closed and abandoned following the division of the city and nature slowly began to work its magic, reclaiming the old crumbling administrative buildings and rotting [...]
Bamboo Bicycle Club
Jack Orlik talks to bamboo bike creator Dan Vogel-Essex... The workshop stands in a triangle of land carved up by industrial bars of steel: frontiers formed by the S-Bahn and national railway tracks that bring trains thundering past every few minutes. "It's a shame you didn't get to see it in the sun. It can be really quite beautiful", says Dan Vogel-Essex, gesturing over the scrubland that was once a trainyard. The sky has clouded over, and the thick metallic smell of rain begins to [...]
In Photos: Treptow Crematorium
All photos by Christoph Boecken. Captions and additional text by Paul Sullivan. Treptow Crematorium Kiefholzstr. 221, 12437 Berlin T 030 63958121 Open M-F 9-15
GDR Museumswohnung
Grashina Gabelmann visits an East German home that's been preserved as a museum... Whether it’s through movies such as Goodbye Lenin, books like Anna Funder’s Stasiland, Berlin institutions like the Stasi Museum or Hohenschoenhausen, or one of the city’s many themed walking tours, you’ll probably know something about the GDR (German Democratic Republic). But unless you’re one of the rare people who actually lived in East Germany between 1949-1990, you probably won’t know [...]
A Tour of Neukölln’s Berliner Kindl brewery…
Natalie Holmes explores the grand tradition of German beer with a visit to one of Berlin's oldest breweries... The ‘invention of tradition’ is a common practice, one noted among anthropologists as a way for cultures, both dominant and marginal, to reassert their uniqueness in a globalised age of blurred borders. Relatively recent phenomena, such as tartan in Scotland, are discussed as if they are tied to the birth of the culture itself, and often make up an integral part of national [...]
Hüttenpalast: Cabin Fever
Leisha Jones checks out one of the city's most innovative accommodation projects - the Hüttenpalast. Passing through the leafy courtyard out the back of an unassuming Neükolln café, the exterior of this1910 vacuum cleaner factory belies the whimsy that awaits behind its doors. Inside, the hushed air and low glow of fairy lights evoke the feeling of entering a clandestine clubhouse. You feel as though you have stumbled upon a place where you should talk in a whisper, or where you [...]
Hohenschönhausen: In Pictures
Stefanie Rothenhöfer chats to Berlin photographer Philipp Lohöfener about his work at Hohenschönhausen, Berlin's Stasi prison memorial. Philipp Lohöfener was born in 1974 in Bielefeld, Germany. He studied photography at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany from 1998 till 2006. In 2010 Lohöfener won first place in the Sony World Photography Awards (Category Fine Art/Architecture 2011), and recently bagged 4th place at the Art of Photography Show, 4th Place, [...]
A Tour Of r(Ostkreuz)
Sanna Akehurst takes a tour around one of her favourite Berlin train stations - Ostkreuz - as it finally undergoes renovations... "]So far as I know, Berlin is streets ahead in terms of exploiting something called Construction Tourism. The first well-known example is the elevated box that showed visitors what Potsdamer Platz was going to look like. The in-progress new international airport (BER Airport Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt) has a visitor's tower and various tours to admire its [...]
