Barkow Leibinger
NEWS 01 | 17 

Our lead story covers the building of a duplex apartment house located in an inner courtyard of a residential block in Prenzlauer Berg, a district dating back to the late 19th century Gründerzeit. By exploiting the zoning setback rules, the building volume was generated to create much needed and valuable housing stock. The sloping volume is attached to an existing neighboring party wall and consists of two maisonette apartments stacked over each other concluding with a roof garden behind a parapet wall. The flush glazing and brick cladding - responding to the pastel colors of the neighboring buildings - emphasizes the taunt geometry of the building volume. Through punched openings, the house generates a multitude of views and orientations in the quiet spaces of the courtyard protected from the busy adjacent street. The building, discreet and humble in scale, exemplifies one of the many approaches for generating density and housing based on opportunity and in response to current and emerging legislative possibilities.
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We displayed our installation Thicket at the Princeton University School of Architecture gallery in an exhibition curated by Tina di Carlo from November 2016 until January 2017. The pavilion, constructed of bundled metal rods sandwiched between a plywood floor and roof, was juxtaposed beside the 1971 film Swamp by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt. This film presents a meander through an actual natural thicket using a tightly zoomed hand held camera. The juxtaposition clarified the rationale between both natural and constructed experiences.
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At the end of 2016, we were a finalist out of 40 entries in the design competition for a new museum at the Kulturforum in Berlin. Our entry was praised as a strong and convincing design, appropriate to the scale and urbanism of the Kulturforum.
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Information on the competition

In 2017, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award will be awarded again. It is considered to be the most prestigious of European architectural awards. Two of our projects have been nominated - Fellows Pavilion and Aufbau Haus.

  
 

Beginning this year, we will use a small showroom at Schillerstrasse 94 in Berlin Charlottenburg as a space for experimentation and exhibition. The former retail shop at the entrance to the industrial lofts, where our office is located, will become our Schaufenster: a workshop, exhibition and event space to complement our studio spaces. We will be posting information on public events, as well as images of activities and projects, through multiple media channels.