On a site in Berlin currently home to old, ugly oilfield tanks, a revitalized district called WerkBundStadt is in the works. ingenhoven architects, along with 32 other firms, are designing residential and mixed-use buildings to transform the stagnant space into one of life and activity. ingenhoven’s design reinterprets the brickwork commonly seen in older city areas by adding copious amounts of plants throughout the building’s facade.
WerkBundStadt will include 1,100 units, including 330 rent controlled units. Each of the 33 architectural firms involved will design one project for the new district, which ingenhoven architects describes as a “dense, socially and functionally mixed live-work city.” ingenhoven architects’ building includes residential units ranging in size “from apartments to maisonette.” Their building will include some of the subsidized housing units.
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Central to the design of the building ingenhoven architects will contribute is the concept of sustainability. The facade of the building includes terraces and balconies bursting with plant life between brickwork to create “protected outdoor areas” that create a “dialogue between residential and urban space.” The facade design also allows for energy efficiency. Facing the south, the building is staggered so more terraces can be incorporated into the design.
“Recyclable, prefabricated modular construction” will grant flexibility to the sustainable building. ingenhoven architects envisions that building in this way will allow for “functional and technical changes of uses throughout the life cycle of the building.” Part of their vision is that the designs for the green building will demonstrate a new way of building housing developments that is economically and environmentally responsible.
ingenhoven architects’ design will be presented this weekend as part of the German Werkbund Day as Werkbund Berlin, the organization behind WerkBundStadt, announces the plans for the new district.
+ ingenhoven architects
+ WerkBundStadt
+ Berlin Werkbund
Images via ingenhoven architects/Illustration: Alexander Schmitz, Dusseldorf and WerkBundStadt Berlin
