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Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum: The Profitwurm and Functional Marvel

Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum
Von Boris Niehaus (www.1just.de) – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30780899

By Jack Bobley*

The Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum stands as a striking edifice that captures immediate attention upon emerging from the Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station. This colossal bright-yellow structure houses over 300 units, forming a horseshoe shape around the central plaza and extending boldly over Adalbertstraße, facilitating traffic with a two-lane underpass. Satellite dishes adorn balconies, and graffiti adorns seemingly inaccessible spots, adding to its unique character. Rising ten stories above ground for residences, with a two-story base housing cafes and shops, the NKZ dominates the skyline, impossible to overlook.

Within the plaza, a vibrant mix of produce stands, takeout joints, bars, art galleries, offices, and even a casino intertwine with the NKZ, creating a bustling microcosm of the multicultural essence of Kotti, the affectionate moniker for the area around Kottbusser Tor. The complex’s integration into the urban landscape is remarkable, with pedestrian underpasses, staircases, and balconies revealing more businesses at every turn. What strikes me most about this scene is that the defining landmark, the architectural marvel of the neighborhood, is a public housing project.

[Read more…] about Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum: The Profitwurm and Functional Marvel

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Adaptive re-use at Berlin’s KulturBrauerei

by Helene Holland*

Since the 1960s, much of Europe and North America has seen a large process of deindustrialization. More than a hundred years after the Industrial Revolution, many factories and other manufacturing sites have been abandoned and their futures were left in question (Berger & High, 2019). In the 1970s, this large swath of abandoned industrial sites came at the same time as UNESCO’s adoption of The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. Not only would environmental sustainability soon become a pressing issue, especially in urban areas, but the convention also raised concerns about preserving cultural heritage. It reaffirmed that protecting areas of heritage such as architecture made a large contribution to goals of sustainable development (UNESCO, 2021). This new direction for urban practices had a major impact on the industrial sites that were recently rendered useless. Rising environmental movements and energy costs also raised concerns about the resources utilized in demolish and construction of new buildings. Later coined “adaptive reuse,” a new architectural practice of reusing old structures was a fitting solution for these issues of cultural heritage and environmental impact. [Read more…] about Adaptive re-use at Berlin’s KulturBrauerei