Making Mitte

Art, culture and gentrification — few parts of Berlin have changed as radically as Mitte. In the 1990s, the district’s growing art scene became both a starting point for gentrification and a trigger for new building activity.

The tour looks at contemporary architecture in its urban context: galleries, publishing spaces and the extension of a prefabricated school building show different ways of working with what is already there in the city. Along the route, the tour opens up perspectives on the architectural legacy of the GDR, set alongside David Chipperfield’s monolithic concrete campus.

The final stop is the large-scale redevelopment of Tacheles Berlin, a site caught between cultural use, commercial pressure and new housing.

HIGHLIGHTS
Culture or capital? The Tacheles redevelopment
Prefabrication and architectural heritage
How to work with the legacy of GDR modernism
Monumentality and efficiency
David Chipperfield’s lightweight concrete campus

Would you prefer to book an individual guided tour on your preferred date? We look forward to your request.

Project selection

Theatre Volksbühne Oskar Kaufmann
Cinema Kino Babylon Hans Poelzig
Passivhaus BCO Architekten
Gallery Linienstraße 40 Bundschuh Architekten 
Publishing House Suhrkamp Bundschuh Architekten 
Black House Anne Lampen
Canteen and Office David Chipperfield
Former Jewish Girl’s School Grüntuch Ernst
Berlin Metropolitan School Sauerbruch Hutton
Tacheles Quartier Herzog & de Meuron u.a.