Building on Behrens in Berlin
As the march to build creative quarters in East London and beyond continues, a new set of offices has been designed and built to increase the number of artists' studios in Berlin.
The architecture firm Fielden Clegg Bradley has refurbished a former electronics factory on the banks of the River Spree in the Treptow-Kopernich district, South East Berlin, and bought by musician and photographer Bryan Adams in 2013, to create what it describes as 'raw space', evocative of its industrial ancestry.
The Spreehalle building was originally constructed in 1910 and used by the German company AEG and forms part of a group of industrial buildings designed at the time by Design Director, Peter Behrens.
Eight live/work ateliers - the design dictated by the existing window positions - now exist with cafe, bookshop and other commercial activities on the ground floor. The building also has an open courtyard created by removing roof coverings but retaining steel structures.
The local council has also invested in this former industrial part of the city with new infrastructure and public spaces. A new pedestrian bridge, public square and boat moorings by the river have already been constructed.
A new two-storey addition to the building's previous first floor roof level means that users can erect whatever structures or mezzanines they choose within the shell, dispelling the idea of a rigid pre-ordained space.