Rethinking Living in Berlin
Master’s Thesis, UdK - 2020/2021
Supervisors: Prof. Jean-Philippe Vassal, Prof. Bettina Götz, Juliane Aleithe
The continued growth of cities and the need for additional housing demands that we reexamine and redefine the ways in which new housing is implemented within the city. Berlin is a metropolis where there is a huge demand for new homes. Densification should not only provide attractive homes to live in but also contribute to the improvement of the area as a whole while improving green spaces and creating vibrant environments.
The project is a process of rethinking living in Berlin and imagining architecture as a way to connect people, nature, buildings, and living. The concept references the past and proposes the luxurious living qualities of the mid-century ‘urban villa’ typology, such as lightness, transparency, and openness, dealing with the questions of density at the same time, taking also the topic of nature to participate at this density, proximity, and activity, on one hand, quietness, solitude, and easiness on another hand.
The site - located on Arcostr, in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, is one of the areas facing the Spree still not built upon. The landscape is covered with oak, linden, and poplar trees, flowers, and various plants with views of the river. With the respect to the existing vegetation, housing is proposed in amongst the trees; that would be floating above the ground. The idea of the void on the ground level serves a close relationship to nature, to articulate and highlight the built mass, and it also leads to the free flow of people, and air while playing with light and shadow. This public ground floor is also a community space to have exchanges and communication where a meeting hall, garden houses, and workshop spaces are organized.
The housing is elevated on columns; the flats are placed in a simple, economical, and efficient (7mx7m) structural grid, able to host a vast range of living scenarios responding to changing lifestyles. Every unit has a winter garden and two terraces both on north and south - offering extra space, light, and use, as well as the possibility of living outside, of having a garden, like in a single house. The idea of luxury is therefore redefined to have maximum pleasure, comfort, and freedom on every floor.