Berlin, Germany
“The basic objective behind the Am Tacheles design concept is to create a piece of city that has due regard for human scale and emanates a certain intimacy,” states Herzog & de Meuron.
“To create an urban structure that is robust and direct in both its constructional detailing and mix of materials. And to create an attractive, bustling urban space that serves the community and the individual alike.”
Herzog & de Meuron together with landscape architects Vogt are soon completing the master plan for Am Tacheles for developer pwr development GmbH, which includes a total of ten new residential and office buildings to be built.
The master plan envisages a mix of new buildings and a redevelopment on an area of more than 20.000 m².
Of these, Herzog & de Meuron is planning one office building and three residential buildings (Vert, Frame, and Oro), including planning the new building on the site of the former Friedrichstrassenpassage and for renovating the former Kunsthaus Tacheles as the future home for Fotografiska, the Swedish Museum of Photography.
When complete, Am Tacheles will be an exciting new business and cultural quarter centered around a historical landmark, the former Kunsthaus Tacheles (Art House), located in Berlin’s prestigious Mitte district.
The Am Tacheles site was one of the last big gap sites in Berlin’s Mitte district.
Herzog & de Meuron were appointed to design the development scheme, half of the existing site was used as a car park, and the rest was abandoned to nature.
The large derelict area sat at the centre of a trapezoidal urban block framed by Friedrichstrasse, Oranienburger Strasse, Johannisstrasse and Tucholskystrasse.
Only the three extreme corners of the perimeter block were developed and occupied.
In hardly any other city are the layers of local history – whether the legacy of development or destruction – as clearly and ubiquitously legible as in Berlin.
The resulting built fabric, assembled and molded by a variety of urban and architectural influences, is marked by the deeply ingrained scars of the Second World War, the post-war years, and the divided city.
Gap sites long dominated vast swathes of the Berlin cityscape.
The wastelands held enormous potential, and the resulting creative scope and open-minded outlook were exploited in a diversity of ways. Berlin became both a field of experimentation for urban planners and architects and a playground for culture and sub-culture.
The former Tacheles building was nothing, but a sad ruin overlooking the empty ground.
Until recently, a still-used mud path leading from the Tacheles gateway building across the site recalled the route of the erstwhile Friedrichstrassenpassage shopping arcade.
Initially built as a department store in 1908, before being converted into a Nazi prison during World War II, then rehabilitated as a gallery from 1990 till 2012, the Kunsthaus Tacheles has experienced multiple demolition and renovation works.
An important cultural heritage, the building will take on a few new interventions. In fact, the damages caused in World War II will be kept intact, whereas the façade and some spaces will be rehabilitated.
The once buzzing, squatted Künstlerhaus Tacheles (Art House Tacheles), which in many ways epitomized post-fall-of-the-Wall Berlin, had lost its pulling power.
The part of the old Friedrichstrassenpassage complex saved from demolition at the eleventh hour by the artist collective had deteriorated into a silent ruin with neither content nor context.
This then forms the starting point for our urban concept for the Am Tacheles, which incorporates the historic fabric in the re-creation of an enclosed block.
The fragment will regain its full geometrical presence – even if only as a spatial element, as an internal passageway that restores the important link between Friedrichstrasse and Oranienburger Strasse.
Indeed, this is no reconstruction or simulation, merely an interpretation of the historic footprint.
The Tacheles building has been integrated into the development scheme and revitalized through the planned use as a cultural venue.
The aim is to recapture the site’s deep historical significance while continuing and developing the narrative.
The remaining part of the block is likewise modeled on the historic city layout.
While seeking to respect the context, the architects also looked for a new, unmistakable form for its expression.
They started with a volume that completely fills the block and proceed to cut out a sequence of variously proportioned squares, yards, and pathways to make it porous and permeable.
The typical urban perimeter block thus takes on a new dimension: it assumes its own inner life, one capable of nurturing a vibrant mix of occupancies and users in the spaces within the perimeter development.
The centerpiece is a large planted square opening onto Oranienburger Strasse that will lend the site a distinctive identity.
The shops, restaurants, and cafes lining the square will enliven the interior environment of the block.
The adjacent facilities along Johannisstrasse comprise a planned housing development together with a series of variously designed yards.
Here, particular care was taken to include a wide variety of basic typologies for the individual buildings as well as for the adjoining yards and squares.
The spaces range from a small urban square, providing access to the site from the south, to a semi-private courtyard overlooked by the spacious balconies of the neighboring apartments.
The planned building typologies are equally diverse: they include a high-ceilinged loft building, compact townhouses surmounted by city apartments, stacked maisonettes, a tower building at the very heart of the urban block, and single-aspect studio apartments arranged along with a firewall.
Project: Am Tacheles Masterplan
Architects: Herzog & de Meuron
Partners: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Ascan Mergenthaler (Partner in Charge)
Project Team for Concept Study and Masterplan: Christoph Röttinger, Yasmin Kherad, Catia Polido, Martina Palocci, and Zaïra Pourier
Design Team for Masterplan and Architecture: Jan-Christoph Lindert,Yasmin Kherad, Nicholas Lyon, Shayan Bahluli Zamani, Ana Bruto da Costa, Maria Christou, Simon Davis, Philipp Dittus, Götz Eberding, Benjamin Engelhardt, Maximilian Fritz, Moritz Fuchs, Daniel García Moreno, Marco Gelsomini, Irene Giubbini, Felix Hecker, Magdalena Hellmann, Gregor Herberholz, Senta Hoppe, Hamit Kaplan, Mark Kaul, Artem Kitaev, Elisabeth Klein, Carla Krehl, Anna Lawicka, Janos Magyar, Lukas Manz, Christina Maret, Francesca Mautone, Alexandra Mümmler, Irena Nowacka, Alexa Nürnberger, Martina Palocci, Mari Paz Agundez, Malte Petersen, Jorge Picas, Catia Polido, Christian Riemenschneider, Guido Roth, Ruven Rotzinger, Julia Ruggiero, Lucia Schreiber, Henning Severmann, Nadine Stecklina, Hendrik Steinigeweg, Rebekka Steinlein, Christian Uhl, Miriam Völcker, Benedict Wahlbrink, and Moritz Werner
Architects for Underground Levels: RKW Architektur + GmbH & Co.KG.
Associate Architects: AUKETT + HEESE, Grüntuch Ernst Architekten, Brandlhuber+ Muck Petzet, RKW Architektur +
Landscape Architects: Vogt Landschaft GmbH
Structural Engineers: Buro Happold
Client: pwr development GmbH