HIGH-RISE

Residential  | Commercial  | Hotel

The high rise building at the Alexander Square is part of a masterplan developed around the Museum Island in Berlin’s city centre. The structure of the residential tower is  divided into three-storey packages that repeat and rotate  along a vertical lane.

The circulation is open to the three-storey high courtyards and the facade, bringing back the urban life and connecting the courtyards as a vertical street. Courtyards with different common uses such as workshops, day-cares, cafes and gardens offer flexible open spaces for the community.

A gradiant transition from the courtyards and their urban life into the residential private units and loggias is given by common terraces shared by five to six apartment units. The apartments were designed to be flexible and open, where spaces flow into one another without walls or boarders. Yet, with levels and furnitures. The main structure consists of a reinforced concrete tube and a concrete fire-retardant separation which doubles as a floor divider, reoccurring every third floor. The apartments substructure is built out of timber panels, and was designed to be rearranged and organized by the inhabitants. The levels of the wooden panels, and the tube structure are visible on the facade, as well as the landscape of private and semi-private terraces and courtyards.

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Design Studio | I. Master Semester
Prof. Raphael Frei  | Technische Universität Berlin
Project by: C.E.Beckmann  | R. Bauer

Location: Berlin, Germany