The design for this residential building in Kreuzberg, Berlin, was generated from careful attention to the urban and social context. Located on a narrow corner site and sandwiched between two existing residential blocks, this new building has become a part of the much-loved fabric of the current neighbourhood while demonstrating the clients’ commitment towards a greener urban future. The site, remnant of a WWII bomb, is located at a busy crossroads in an area of Kreuzberg that buzzes with a mixture of residential flats, small businesses and a lively street life. This damaged corner was for many years used as a private parking lot, and became an unsightly urban scar that has only now, with this elegant building, undergone long-overdue repair.
With five floors of flats, Sarah Rivière Architect’s new apartment block rises to form a small tower at the corner, acknowledging the long-established Kreuzberg custom where characteristic towers mark most crossroads in this area. The five floors of apartments are linked with a new staircase and lift that rises to a large communal roof terrace on top of the tower, with round “porthole” openings towards the street. Each residential storey is planned with the flexibility to accommodate either two 60m² to 80m² flats or one larger flat, so as to suit changing family needs now and in the future.
As part of the building’s green agenda, a vertical “living-wall” has been built on the Glogauer Strasse façade, which absorbs traffic pollution and noise from the adjoining street. Rectangular box balconies punch almost theatrically out through the living-wall giving residents the opportunity to actively inhabit the vertical garden, while three metre high windows to the street invite passers-by into a new ground floor bar below. Around the gently curved corner, the second street façade to Reichenberger Strasse is quieter, as suits the more homogeneous architecture of this road. The apartments here have small French balconies fitting close to the façade.
This residential corner building harmonises with existing buildings located at this busy urban junction. Without being arrogant, aggressive or obtrusive, the building still expresses its own strong ecological character both within this lively Kreuzberg neighbourhood and towards the city of Berlin as a whole.
