“When one thinks of architecture, the first things that come to mind are always the building elements, the facades, the columns, the ornaments, but all of that is secondary. What is most effective is not the form, but its inverse—the space, the emptiness that rhythmically spreads between the walls, enclosed by them, yet whose vitality is more important than the walls themselves. Whoever can sense space, its directions and dimensions (…), has access to an almost unknown world—the world of the architect and the world of the painter.” August Endell
Context
The city of Berlin as we experience it today is primarily the result of its urban planning efforts of the late 19th century. Since then, its rich heritage has been marked by harsh ruptures, destruction and reconstruction, creating unique and often fascinating places with both problems and new opportunities. Berlin, with all its potential and uniqueness, is facing the great tasks of our generation – from climate change to mobility, from social cohesion and cultural migration, from digitalization to diversity – with the overarching goal to design and build attractive and resilient urbanism and architecture by learning from the principles of the city’s past and readapt them to the challenges of our future.
The 2019 International Urban Planning Competition Berlin-Brandenburg 2070 developed key visions for the future of the metropolitan region, focusing both on the compact inner city and its expansion into the surrounding areas. Compared to many other European cities, Berlin still holds immense potential for urban infill, densification, spatial optimization and infrastructure transformation. At the same time, the city’s existing green character embodies a unique legacy of urban development that must be preserved and will play an increasingly important role in maintaining climate balance in the future.
Future mobility will be shaped by rail transport. As a result, the city’s growth will spread out in a star-like pattern into the surrounding satellite towns along the existing and new rail lines of the S-Bahn and regional trains, providing space for approximately 1 million new residents. The ambitious City-S-Bahn project aims to add a crucial north-south radial line to the Berlin S-Bahn network, running from the northern Ringbahn (circle train route around Berlin’s inner city area) through Hauptbahnhof (main station) to Südkreuz, Berlin’s second largest train station. The historically layered context along its route serves as the starting and connection point for the design studio.
The Project
The project perimeter will be limited to the section BA3 a und b, between the multifunctional hubs of Potsdamer Platz in the north and the interregional train station Südkreuz in the south, with focus on today’s Park am Gleisdreieck and the areas south of Yorckstraße.
While today’s Park am Gleisdreieck was initially laid out as an area of urban expansion during the 19th century, it could not compete with the economic interests of the city’s railroad companies and became Berlin’s largest transshipment point for people and goods during the 19th and first half of the 20th century. After heavy bombing towards the end of the Second World War, the damaged railroad structures were partially restored, but the surrounding area fell into disrepair until the reunification of Germany in 1990. In 2005, a landscape competition for the former railyards was announced, and the winning park design was ultimately realized in 2011. Besides the already implemented urban densifications at the park’s edges, the city of Berlin intends to create additional urban neighborhoods within and along the park and further south towards Südkreuz.
In the context of these intentions, students will be asked to develop visions for an urban infill with a strong impact that could emerge in the context of the upcoming realization of the new City S-Bahn. The visions and designs should aim to create impulses for an exemplary urban re-densification and repair the partially fragmented urban fabric by offering or integrating additional uses.
Studio
The semester will open with a collaborative analysis and documentation starting with an inventory of Berlin’s most significant urban patterns and their architecture, public amenities, streetscapes and landscapes. The urban analysis will be followed by a detailed study of distinct public, semi-public and private buildings to acquire knowledge about Berlin’s architectural identity and DNA.
The knowledge gained from the urban and architectural precedent analysis will be used to develop guidelines and strategies for the urban and architectural design approach. The collaborative master planning effort will challenge the ability to find solutions for a qualitative and sustainable development of a complex existing urban structure and to combine them into a coherent, large-scale overall urban design concept that meets all the requirements that the city of the future is faced with.
The architectural project in the second half of the semester represents a specific response to the urban masterplan effort of the first half of the semester. Each student project will focus on the study and design of (a) building(s) within the overall master plan that will be presented in its new or existing urban context. The type of building to be designed can range from residential buildings of varying scales, sports or recreational facilities, cultural and educational institutions, or even public transport stations. During the design process, the immanent question will be: Does the project represent a coherent, logical contribution to the redevelopment of the urban space around it?
Throughout the semester, students will work both individually as well as collaboratively and are encouraged to explore, use and change different mediums of design, both manually and digitally. Workshops, readings and regular pin-ups will encourage and amplify an open discourse among all participants. The studio will host various German scholars and practitioners to discuss sustainable urbanism and architecture, history and technology, craft and culture. YSOA Senior Critic George Knight AIA will attend all studio sessions in person with Julia Treese attending numerous sessions in person and weekly by Zoom.
Travel
The studio will travel to Berlin to explore its multifaceted historical layers. We will visit exemplary architectural and urban projects from both older and more recent city history in selected sub-centers, including Kreuzberg, Charlottenburg, Mitte, and Prenzlauer Berg. Here, we will experience artistically choreographed urban spaces and their spatial sequences, urban squares that offer a high quality of stay, intact urban streets, and, above all, the versatility and multifunctionality of the urban block and its characteristic inner courtyard.
In addition to the visits of the project site and urban precedents, exploring Berlin’s historical center around Museum Island will be an essential part of the trip. Students will discover the city’s rich cultural repertoire of outstanding buildings by influential Prussian architects such as Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Friedrich August Stüler, Ludwig Persius and others, whose contributions shape the face and character of the German capital today and are part of the fundamental heritage of architecture.