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The long-awaited opening of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum took place yesterday afternoon, ending a years-long wait that saw a torrent of missives, protests, and other public backlash against the €680 million ($800 million) project hosted by the city’s Museum Island. © Stiftung Humboldt Forum... View full entry
A theatrical new subway station is gracing the Berlin stage after a dramatic opening Friday. The new Museumsinsel U-Bahn station is part of an expansion of the U5 that will connect the line into an area of the city called Museum Island. Swiss architect Max Dudler is behind the... View full entry
Berlin is to hold a referendum on a grassroots proposal that would force major property companies to sell thousands of their apartments to a public-owned body. A public petition for the idea, fueled by anger over surging housing prices, has gathered 183,711 valid signatures, which is more than the... View full entry
Nearly a decade after being appointed to refurbish one of Modernism's most iconic buildings, the team of architect David Chipperfield wrapped up construction on the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In a recent virtual ceremony, the keys were handed over to the clients — Berlin State... View full entry
On the site of a church torn down by East Germany’s communist rulers, a new place of worship is set to rise that will bring Christians, Jews and Muslims under one roof – and it has already been dubbed a “churmosquagogue”. — The Guardian
Designed by Berlin-based architects Kuehn Malvezzi, the $57 million House of One project for the historic Petriplatz in Germany's capital has been in a lengthy planning process for the past ten years. Previously on Archinect: Designing the House of One, a Worship Space for Three Religions by Kuehn... View full entry
Nine years late and $4 billion over budget, the airport is already outdated. Repeated blunders dented the image of German efficiency, but the “poor but sexy” capital has long been a bit different. [...]
Under construction for 14 years, the airport is nine years past its original opening date and more than $4 billion over budget. Every month, it costs several million dollars just to keep the unused airport running.
— The New York Times
Katrin Bennhold, The New York Times’s Berlin bureau chief, takes a look back at the unbelievable saga of the long-awaited and — nine years behind schedule — now finally opened Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport. "The foundations of the terminal were already laid when it emerged... View full entry
GRAFT has revitalized a historical post office in Berlin, expanding it with two buildings and converting the existing rooftops into commercial spaces. Accessible to the public, the new complex includes offices, restaurants, retail space, and apartments. © Bttr GmbH The original post office... View full entry
The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is set to reopen in the summer of 2021, more than six years after it closed for renovation, with an exhibition of the American sculptor Alexander Calder in the temple-like steel-and-glass upper level of the building.
Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and first opened in 1968, the museum is undergoing a €100m modernisation and refurbishment by the Berlin-based British architect David Chipperfield [...].
— The Art Newspaper
Reflecting on the significance, and also quirks, of Mies van der Rohe's 1967 New National Gallery, the architect of the ambitious renovation project, David Chipperfield, told the New York Times in a 2017 interview: "Mies took architecture to its extreme. And as a result, the building has... View full entry
Axel Springer, Europe's largest publishing house, has opened its newest building, designed by OMA, on the campus of its existing headquarters in Berlin. The new structure is bisected by a diagonal atrium that opens up to the existing Axel Springer buildings, creating a series of terraced floors... View full entry
A groundbreaking ceremony has just taken place for the Monument to Freedom and Unity, in central Berlin. The 50m-long (164ft) bowl will move gently up and down when enough people stand on it, and it should be completed by the end of next year.
In a guide to the design, architects Milla & Partner, who won a competition called "Citizens in Motion", say "freedom and unity aren't static conditions, they require participation and interaction".
— BBC
The monument, nicknamed "unity seesaw" by Berliners, is conceived as an enormous bowl-shaped kinetic platform that invites people to interact with each other. Image courtesy of Milla & Partner Stuttgart-based practice Milla & Partner in collaboration with choreographer Sasha Waltz created the... View full entry
The Berlin government said on Tuesday it would create a new hospital to cope with a likely huge increase in coronavirus cases.
The facility, which will house up to 1,000 patients, will be set up in the Berlin Messe trade fair exhibition grounds in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of the German capital.
The hospital will be built with the help of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr.
— DW
As the coronavirus outbreak rapidly expands also in Germany, officials in Berlin hope to prevent potential bottlenecks in the capital's hospital system with a new medical facility specifically for COVID-19 patients. The country now has more than 10,000 confirmed cases — the third highest in... View full entry
Beginning in early 2020, Berlin’s left-leaning government will freeze rents for five years. Landlords will be required to show new tenants the most recent rental contracts to prove they aren’t jacking up prices. They’ll also have to follow new rent-cap rules, which for many landlords could mean lowering rents by as much as 40%. Those who don’t comply will be hit with fines as high as €500,000 ($553,000) for each violation. — Bloomberg Businessweek
Writing in Bloomberg Businessweek, Caroline Winter and Andrew Blackman cover the fascinating political battle taking place in Berlin, Germany, where tenants' groups and landlords are navigating the impacts of recent rent-freeze regulations by the local government that aim to reign in unaffordable... View full entry
The budget committee of Germany’s lower house of parliament yesterday approved additional funding for Berlin’s planned Museum of the 20th Century, designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, after estimates for the construction costs spiralled to €364m from €200m. — The Art Newspaper
According to The Art Newspaper, the new Herzog & de Meuron-designed museum in Berlin's central Kulturforum arts district is needed because "the Neue Nationalgalerie can only display about a quarter of Berlin’s vast stores of 20th-century art at any given time." Current situation at the planned... View full entry
A Berlin-based artist who put up billboards advertising fake real estate projects in protest against runaway property development received more than 200 calls from would-be investors who didn’t get the joke. [...]
At a distance, the adverts look plausible but closer inspection of the images visualising what the new properties would look like reveals odd details.
— The Guardian
Treptown Visions, billboard in public space, Treptow, Berlin, 2019 by Dorothea Nold. Image: Dorothea Nold/aussenwelt "Citizens are not being asked for their permission when investors make such drastic changes in their city, that’s why I thought it is okay to put them without permission up to... View full entry
The installation is part of a week-long festival running from 4-10 November for the 30th anniversary. It aims to “celebrate the successes of the revolution and to recall the joy at regained freedoms and the risks and pains of social upheaval,” according to a statement from the organisers, Kulturprojekte Berlin. — The Art Newspaper
As the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches this November, various art projects prepare to commemorate the events of the peaceful 1989 revolution throughout the city. Via large-scale interactive installations, 3D video projections, and an augmented reality app, artists seek... View full entry
