Metropolitan Village – Berlin

As a neighbourhood within a neighbourhood, the ‘Metropolitan Village’ Kiehlufer picks up on the spirit of Berlin and carries it forward. Diversity, density, accessibility, adaptability and a flexible use of space are important for the architecture of the neighbourhood within the neighbourhood. Berlin is characterised by the Berliner Block, especially in the neighbourhoods that make the city a centre of attraction for many cultures. The Berliner Block is the driving force behind Berlin’s mix of housing, commerce and culture. Its inner life, the intimate, quiet courtyards, are particularly attractive. Each courtyard is a manageable world, its own biotope with its own atmosphere. Passages connect courtyards and reveal surprising things. Sometimes entire blocks can be traversed. Breaks and offsets open up diagonal views and insights into neighbouring courtyards and greened fire walls.

A new, site-specific and contemporary courtyard structure with the qualities of an established structure, but more open, greener and more varied than its historical predecessors, is created on the elongated, historical plot structure extending from the Neukölln canal by means of three building sequences that are shifted towards each other. The courtyards generally open up on two sides, to other courtyards and to the green strip towards the allotment garden colony, which forms green fingers into the courtyards. The buildings take up the building heights of the surrounding urban texture. A moderate accent is set at the bridgehead in the interplay of building heights. Together with the two-storey buildings below the elevated courtyards, a varied and characteristic courtyard and building topography is created. Green building flanks accentuate the shift between the buildings. Each courtyard is different, with its own character, a distinctive address for residential and commercial use.

Users, residents and visitors move along spatial sequences of differently characterised, proportioned and programmed spaces through a small-scale milieu. A passageway from Harzer Strasse to Kiehlufer and Treptower Strasse creates different degrees of publicness within the network of courtyards: residential courtyards on one side and neighbourhood and commercial courtyards on the other. On the one hand, this zoning enables high-quality living with the desired privacy and, on the other hand, the underlaying of residential use with commercial uses. This not only combines living, local amenities, going out, day-care and education, work with urban production, offices and research, but also creates synergy-generating meeting places and workplaces in the outdoor space that are beneficial both for working from home and for play and education in an active neighbourhood.

 

Urban Design Workshop “Metropolitan Village Kiehlufer Neukölln, Berlin”
Client: INCEPT GmbH, Berlin
Program: 270 apartments, 4.600 m² office/education/research, 1.350 m² urbane production, 1.400 m² retail, 750 m² gastronomy and neigborhood space, 350 m² kindergarten
Site area: 1,2 ha

Team SMAQ: Andreas Quednau, Sabine Müller, Anton Leibham, Dao Le, Bennet Tielker, Cesare Sartori, Valentin Lepley-Schuhmann
in collaboration with WES LandschaftsArchitektur (landscape).

projects, urbanism, competitions
17/05/2024