It used to be quite easy to find your way around Berlin - there was West Berlin and East Berlin. After reunification, Prenzlauer Berg became the most popular district. And since the 2001 territorial reform, the still chic Prenzelberg lost its independence and became part of the Pankow district. Although part of Storkower Straße runs through Prenzlauer Berg, it is now also part of the Pankow district. While exploring the new district, the Berlin architects deluse hernandez architects noticed an old GDR flat building with only one staircase. An enormously wide fire department bypass was therefore necessary for the building. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, two more stairwells were added for safety reasons, so that - and this was the architects' clever idea - the fire department bypass became obsolete, creating a large buildable area at the rear of the property.

The architects' idea of creating building land here actually became reality. When the state-owned Berlinovo real estate company decided to build on the newly created land, it deservedly commissioned the architects to take over the planning for the planned building. Today, a seven-storey residential building with 76 one- to two-room apartments stands here. The architects were tasked with planning as many apartments as possible on a floor area of 465 m² to accommodate urgently needed nursing staff from Charité. It was handed over to its new residents in the fall of 2023. The cubature of the seven-storey building is unusual: it runs at right angles to Storkower Strasse with a height of 22 meters and steps down in three stages towards the tracks of the Ringbahn, so that the building is reminiscent of a ship with staggered decks. The design envisaged spacious communal roof terraces for the residents from the outset. The house is a solid construction with a white plaster façade. The architects generated a total living space of 1,944 m². With over 70 apartments, the building is therefore extremely efficient. According to the criteria catalog for buildings, it is considered a special building of building class 5, which includes employee housing.

The interior fittings are simple and cost-saving in order to enable affordable rents. Efficiency house level 40 was achieved for an optimal energy supply via vertical photovoltaics and a solar thermal system on the roof. The residential building fits in between two existing buildings, whereby the north-eastern neighbor is located directly on the street and required an entrance in the second row. The existing buildings in the surrounding area - a high-rise residential building, a few stores and offices and a petrol station - are very heterogeneous, but the new urban building block brings them together into a single unit. The general orientation of the quarter is towards the S-Bahn tracks - the lifeline of the district, so to speak. To the south, the famous sports facilities such as the velodrome designed by French architect Dominique Perrault and the Europasportpark indoor swimming pool are located nearby.

www.delusearchitects.com

Photos:

Bratislav Jesic

(Published in CUBE Berlin 02|25)