Assignment 02 - Individual Design
Badeschiff/Arena

The Badeschiff is located on the River Spree, right behind the Berlin Arena. Due to its location, the Badeschiff attracts tourists on a daily basis. It also helps that the Arena has a lot of activities year round, including concerts, movies and theatre productions. The Badeschiff is also open year round and during the winter months the deck is covered with a PVC membrane and it turns the swimming deck into a Sauna and heated pool.

The proposed program involves incorporating the existing café, ticket counter and introducing a changing station that leads the visitor into a hall of distorted mirrors. The entrance will become a hall of marketing for the Badeschiff. It will display posters of upcoming programs that change on a weekly basis. This transformation chamber wraps all these introductory activities together and ends with the distorted mirrors and pathways leading the visitor to different program. This temporary distortion of your image and location of yourself is the final experience of the chamber.

Assignment 01 - Historical Research
Potsdamer Platz

The Berlin Senate organized a competition without the owners of the land or any investors being involved. They selected a draft by Himler and Sattler (from Munich) which carved out an area with a street grid closely oriented towards the historical layout. The land was then divided into four parts, each to be sold by an investor, who would then plan according to the master plan. There was no real starting point as it was almost empty with the exception of Haus Huth, which survived the war only slightly damaged due to its steel skeleton. Today Haus Huth is the headquarters of Daimler AG’s corporate office in Berlin.

There is a bit of controversy regarding the division of the land and how it was commercialized. For example, they divided the land between only four investors when many bids had been submitted. Also, Daimler-Benz had been allowed to secure their plot of land for a remarkably low price. The public raged when the Berlin Senate demanded a shopping mall to be included in the plans. Despite its obvious success, this led to what many saw as an “Americanism” of the area.

The Daimler land was the largest of the four parts. The design was charged by Italian architect, Renzo Piano, in which there are 19 individual buildings, including the Kolhoff building by Hans Kolhoff. This includes the “panoramapunkt” viewing platform at the top. Piano’s masterplan was to have visual integrity, so he used terracotta, brick and sandstone to exude an inviting atmosphere. The inclusion of the “Piano Lake” provides a balance to the surrounding urban density. The lake tops up whenever necessary with rainwater stored in underground cisterns.

Assignment 02 - Individual Design
Badeschiff/Arena

The Badeschiff is located on the River Spree, right behind the Berlin Arena. Due to its location, the Badeschiff attracts tourists on a daily basis. It also helps that the Arena has a lot of activities year round, including concerts, movies and theatre productions. The Badeschiff is also open year round and during the winter months the deck is covered with a PVC membrane and it turns the swimming deck into a Sauna and heated pool.

The proposed program involves incorporating the existing café, ticket counter and introducing a changing station that leads the visitor into a hall of distorted mirrors. The entrance will become a hall of marketing for the Badeschiff. It will display posters of upcoming programs that change on a weekly basis. This transformation chamber wraps all these introductory activities together and ends with the distorted mirrors and pathways leading the visitor to different program. This temporary distortion of your image and location of yourself is the final experience of the chamber.

Assignment 01 - Historical Research
Potsdamer Platz

The Berlin Senate organized a competition without the owners of the land or any investors being involved. They selected a draft by Himler and Sattler (from Munich) which carved out an area with a street grid closely oriented towards the historical layout. The land was then divided into four parts, each to be sold by an investor, who would then plan according to the master plan. There was no real starting point as it was almost empty with the exception of Haus Huth, which survived the war only slightly damaged due to its steel skeleton. Today Haus Huth is the headquarters of Daimler AG’s corporate office in Berlin.

There is a bit of controversy regarding the division of the land and how it was commercialized. For example, they divided the land between only four investors when many bids had been submitted. Also, Daimler-Benz had been allowed to secure their plot of land for a remarkably low price. The public raged when the Berlin Senate demanded a shopping mall to be included in the plans. Despite its obvious success, this led to what many saw as an “Americanism” of the area.

The Daimler land was the largest of the four parts. The design was charged by Italian architect, Renzo Piano, in which there are 19 individual buildings, including the Kolhoff building by Hans Kolhoff. This includes the “panoramapunkt” viewing platform at the top. Piano’s masterplan was to have visual integrity, so he used terracotta, brick and sandstone to exude an inviting atmosphere. The inclusion of the “Piano Lake” provides a balance to the surrounding urban density. The lake tops up whenever necessary with rainwater stored in underground cisterns.