Location | Markgrafenstraße 35, D-10117 Berlin |
Client | Berliner Kraft und Licht BEWAG |
Building period | 1994–1997 |
Volume | GFA 9.000 m² |
The residential and commercial building for Bewag—in a prominent location on Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt—was built on the site where the city’s oldest power station once stood. The building’s design references the historic town house typology of the Friedrichstadt district. The defining feature is the relief-style stone facade with recessed steel-framed windows. The clearly visible facade screws add a technological touch, alluding to the industrial architecture that used to occupy this site. The building’s axial emphasis and the entrance situation it creates reference the Deutscher Dom (German Church) that faces it on the square.
Almost 20 years after initial construction work on this project began, a pavilion-style roof conversion with a panoramic view over the city has been added. Careful detailing and high-quality materials give the apartment with its two terraces a timeless air. Massive wooden floorboards extending the full length of the room underscore the flat’s perspectival orientation towards the Deutscher Dom.