Street Style

Berlin is lauded as one of the most influential centers in European politics, culture and science, and a magnet for individuals who are attracted by its reputation for its liberal lifestyle, nightlife and artistic eclecticism. It is also home for a disparate mix of outstanding design and architecture and its cityscape is a unique amalgamation of outstanding architectural creations.

Berlin’s soul, shaped by its tense and unique history, is reflected in its buildings. Particularly, Berlin was devastated by bombing raids during World War II, and many of the old buildings that escaped the bombs were destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s.

Each of the national governments based in Berlin—the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and now the reunified Germany—initiated construction programs, all with their own distinctive character. This adds to the eclectic nature of Berlin’s overall aesthetic today.

The major architectural styles can be seen in the Gründerzeit buildings of the late 19th century, when Berlin’s population exploded in just a few years, to the functionality of New Objectivity in the 1920s. Beyond this one sees the impact of the totalitarian architectural style of the Nazis, and the architecture of the post-war era that documents the seperation and competition between the political systems of East and West in the divided city.

After the Wall came down, Berlin had a historically unique opportunity to converge the two sides that had been divided for decades. 15 years after reunification, Berlin is still a work in progress

Sony Centre

The Sony centre is Helmut Jahn’s awe inspiring glass tower on Potsdamer Platz. It is a complex of 8 separate buildings, incorporating office spaces, cafes, and the cinema museum, with a central dome tented by an impressive roof of glass and steel.

Architect Helmut Jahn has an innovative style that puts him in opposition to “utility” architects, always looking to integrate new technologies, and was a great instigator of the use of glass in architecture, lauding it’s light and transparent properties.

According to Jahn, “Light, both natural and artificial, is the essence of the design. The Sony Centre is luminous, not illuminated. The glass facades and roof act as a fabric that moderates the natural and artificial light…there is a constant change of images and effect during day and night, affecting not only the appearance but also maximizing the comfort and minimizing the use of energy resources. “

Berlin Sony Centre - Photo by Dalabera

Reichstag

The Reichstag’s construction started in 1884 and is now the seat of the Bundestag, the German parliament. In 1999 it received a make-over by Norman Forster. Crowned by a spiraled glass cone with an central mirrored pillar, it is one of Berlin’s most recognized sites, and is worth the lengthy wait to climb up.

Aside its visual splendor, the Reichstag has a complicated history, being at the centre of Germany’s most dramatic recent period. Post WWII Philipp Scheidmann declared the German Republic from here. Hitler blamed the communists for the fire of 1933, and shortly after seized power. In 1945, the Soviets nearly annihilated the building in a series of dedicated attacks and in 1990 the reunification of Germany was enacted here.

It has even been wrapped like a present by artists Christo and Jeanne Claude for 2 weeks!

Berlin Reichstag - Photo by The Dew

Philharmonie

Berlin’s premier classical concert venue displays typical Expressionist movement architectural style typified by organic and irregular forms. There appears to be no rectangular or symmetrical forms in the entire building and its lopsided conjuncture of golden aluminum panels looks vaguely reminiscent of a nomadic tent.

The Philharmonie was the first in the  “Kulturforum” series of buildings that also includes the Kammermusiksaal, Staatsbibliothek, and Neue Nationalgalerie in an area of Berlin leveled before the second World War.

Berlin Philharmonie - Photo by 96dpi

Olympic Stadium

An Olympic stadium isn’t usually what you’d include in a piece on characteristic architecture, but this coliseum designed by Walter and Wener March is a stellar example of Nazi era monumentalist architecture. It is characterized by deco styling, and more money was spent on statues than on the monument itself.

Like most Nazi monuments built during Hitler’s reign, most of the design goes by the adage, “bigger is better”, and also follows Hitler’s “value of ruins” theory of architecture - that structures should be built to look grand 1,000 years after they’ve fallen into disuse.

The stadium and the surrounding sports complexes are considered the only grand architectural scheme completed under Hitler that survives. While it’s now used for cultural events, and pop concerts, the stadium saw events like Jesse Owens win 4 Olympic gold medals, and a Norwegian Jew score a second goal in a World Cup match, sending the German team to failure, much to Hitler’s distress. But it was more than a sports stadium, - it was also the home for some of the most significant and monumental Nazi rallies, where the spectator was also the participant.

Berlin Olympic Stadium - Photo by Ikkoskinen

Philological Library, Free University Berlin

Designed by Norman Forster it is considered a masterpiece of “eccentric” design and protrudes off the main campus like a glass and metallic brain or an alien pupa. The original campus is a concrete and rust encrusted 1960w rectangular building and the juxtaposition creates immediate impact.

The Free University of Berlin is the largest university in Berlin. It was founded in 1948 by students and staff who were relegated because of their political views from the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1968, it was the center of the left-wing German student movement in a parallel to that of Paris, London, and Berkeley.

Le Corbusier Haus

While this complex looks like a drab set of apartments, when the Le Corbusier Haus was constructed around 1947 it was considered the apex of modern architecture.  Le Corbusier was seen as a radical and uncompromising innovator of modern architecture, and a pioneer of the International Style. Famous for his ideological formalism, he favored Spartan, white-walled villas, free-flowing floor plans, strip windows and generous open space. Architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe looked forward to a day when all houses would be “machines for living”.

It is still one of Europe’s largest housing complexes — its 530 apartments can house up to 1,400 people. Typical of the his style, this tremendous building rests on stilts.

The Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin)

A museum in Kreuzberg covering two millennia of German Jewish history. Designed by Daniel Libeskind (who will design the new World Trade Centre), the structure is distinctive as it doesn’t respond to any functional requirements, but is rather constructed to create spaces that tell the story of the Jewish people in Germany, serving as a metaphor for the tortuous history of the Jewish people. The museum itself is a work of art, blurring the lines between architecture and sculpture.

The view from above is that of a large zig-zag line, and  the main building is covered with zinc plating, and the windows are gashes that pierce the surface in a random fashion. These lines were created from connecting different sites in a Berlin map that are important to Jewish history.

The entrance is located in an adjacent Baroque building,  representing the inseparable German and Jewish histories fraught with violence and secrecy. The staircase leads to an underground site, composed of three hallways.

The unusually named Axis of Death, leads to a concrete tower  called The Holocaust Tower that has been left a void; The Axis of Exile leads to an exterior square courtyard composed of chaotic, tilted concrete columns, called The Garden of Exile; while The Axis of Continuity, bisects the other two hallways, representing the permanence of Jews in Germany in spite of the Holocaust and the Exile. This leads to the entrance to the museum, but is intentionally difficult and long.

Jewish Museum by lmcd

Deutsches Historisches Museum and IM Pei Bau

Conceived by star architect IM Pei (of the glass pyramid on the Louvre fame) the Chinese-born American architect is one

of the most prolific architects of our times, who incorporates both Eastern and Western sensibilities into his designs

In contrast to the museum’s older structures, the elegant glass annex, which protrudes off the museums main building, is both simple and striking with its triangular footprint and it’s flowing  curved staircase. It showcases Berlin’s current architectural and cultural renaissance. Pei provides a modern departure to this important historical European institution.

Deutsches Historisches Museum by Brostad

GSW Admin Building

This building by Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton has a candy colored facade that looks like a pixelated tapestry of pastel slabs. The 110 meter long and 85 meter high concave face dominates the skyline with its  looming mosaic of poppish orange, pinks and red panels that both add to aesthetic effect and shade against the sun.

The GSW headquarters are also an emblematic example of sustainable architecture employing energy-conserving construction techniques. Fresh air constantly flows into the space beneath the facade, pulling the stale air out of the offices and saving energy by about 40 percent. The aerodynamic low pressure is produced by the large wind sail on the roof.

GSW Admin by seier+seier+seier

DaimlerChrystler

Shortly after the reunification of Germany numerous architectural competitions were held in connection with plans to renovate Berlin. One such project, sponsored by Daimler-Chrysler, involved the rehabilitation of the square, Potsdamer Platz. Because the site had been Berlin’s cultural and commercial center up until the 1930s, it took on enormous symbolic meaning, besides posing considerable challenges.

Christoph Kohlbecker, and five other teams of architects, were brought in to carry out the detailed planning. This ensured that the new district would have a certain homogeneity and, conversely, architectural variety. The three buildings on Linkstrasse, totaling almost 60,000 square meters, comprise of two buildings for offices and retail and a third building with three levels of retail and 72 residential apartments.

Bauhaus Archiv

This distinctive, modernist building was purpose-designed by legendary architect Walter Gropius to house the Bauhaus Archive. The archive exhibits a historic collection of works incorporating all aspects of the influential Bauhaus school of design (1919-1933). It was planned in 1964 for Darmstadt (Germany), and was built in Berlin in 1976-79. Its characteristic silhouette is one of Berlin’s landmarks.

Walter Adolph Gropius was one of the most influential and important architects and educators of the 20th century. His creative period lasted almost seventy years and included projects in Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Greece and Iraq. Since Gropius believed that architects should not only design buildings, he also designed textiles, tableware, furniture and lamps as well as automobiles, rail cars and locomotives. The consistent use of simple geometric shapes characterizes Gropius’ designs. He often employed rectangles of varying size to represent hierarchy. His forms were marked by smooth surfaces, primary colors and modern materials such as steel and glass.

Bauhaus is the common term for the Staatliches Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933. One of the main goals of Bauhaus was to renew architecture and had such seminal and legendary leaders as Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture, the industrial and graphic arts, and theatre design. The principles of the Bauhaus, based on those of the 19th-century English craftsman and writer William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, were that art should meet the needs of society and that no distinction should be made between fine arts and practical crafts. They also depended on the more progressive ideologies that modern art and architecture must be responsive to the needs and influences of the modern industrial world and that good design must be both visually pleasing and pragmatic, thus was marked by the absence of ornament and ostentatious façades.

Bauhaus Archiv by hay.misty

DZ bank

Another example of experimental contemporary design. Frank Gehry, famous for his sculptural architecture, was also responsible for building the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao, Spain, and the Dancing House in Prague. With the DZ Bank he has created one of the most enigmatic interiors in Berlin. While he intended to build the bank in the shape of a fish, zoning laws in the square prohibited any works that would detract from the Brandenburg Gate nearby. In response he created a massive piece of experimental, functional sculpture inside a rather innocuous and unassuming facade. Its science fictionesque themes are striking and very unusual.

DZ Bank by laurenatclemson