Hasta La Ideas

Architects Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus have unveiled a conceptual skyscraper for Berlin with a twisted figure-of-eight structure that curves around elevated gardens and is held up by cables.

Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus, who are both based in Berlin, developed the design to contribute to a new masterplan being put together for the eastern quarter of the city.

“The state of society in the twenty-first century requires that we develop new visions for living in densely populated inner cities,” Preibisz told Dezeen. “This process inherently triggers an essential confrontation of material and social values, and so there is a nascent yearning for an architecture that offers a high degree of potential for community.”

Describing the building as a “vertical garden city”, the architects have planned a network of gardens and greenhouses that would slot into the two hollows of the figure-of-eight, intended to serve a growing desire among city dwellers for self-sustaining gardening.

Residences would be arranged to encourage neighbours to interact with one another, fostering a sense of community that the architects compare to social networks.

“While in social networking, the border between the public and the private spheres is being renegotiated, architecture and urban planning of cities such as Berlin lags behind these significant social and demographic changes,” they explain.

Named Green8, the tower is designed for a site on Alexanderplatz. The architects are now consulting with an engineering office to assess the viability of the structure.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Green8 Concept

How Do We Want To Live?

While trying to answer the query of how and where to house, many modern families today are torn between the desire for a pulsating urban life and the craving for a lifestyle in harmony with nature.

Our identification with and our desire for a free and urban life style defined by short distances to work, excellent public transportation, and proximity to cultural and commercial amenities, does not need to end with the decision to start a family or with retirement from active professional life.

Current trends towards a ‘sharing-spirit’ and a new participation in the community life counteract the anonymity and isolation in the metropolis. While in social networking, the border between the public and the private spheres is being renegotiated, architecture and urban planning of cities such as Berlin lags behind these significant social and demographic changes.

The unease with the global imperative of continued growth propagated by financial markets, seems to be spreading. Confidence in industrial food production finds itself nowadays significantly eroded. At the same time also the mass production of organic and healthier food has its limits and fails to appease growing groups of customers.

The longing for self-sustaining gardening and for knowing about the origins of what one is eating, are the most important reasons for the current boom in urban gardening.

What do these developments mean for architecture and urban planning? How do we want to live and house in the future?

As an integrative solution to this dilemma, the architects Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus are proposing project Green8 for a vertical garden city on Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

The residential high-rise structure is based on a business model of a cooperative collective. It envisions a self-determined community encompassing all generations. With its generous greenhouse and community spaces Green8 offers to organise not only the food production but also the sport and leisure activities, as well as the care of children and seniors.

Green8 reflects a dream come true: living in the centre of the city with breathtaking panorama views, while having one’s own vegetable garden at one’s doorstep.

Thanks to its cooperative and integrative principles, this housing concept is economically efficient. This form of home ownership is free from many constraints of real estate or land speculation, and the long term costs are lower than those of conventional homes.

Green8 is not a house. It is a life form.

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and Peter Sandhaus appeared first on Dezeen.

by Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi When MINI Australia tapped Berlin-based Sigurd Larsen to exhibit furniture as part of their temporary concept space, little did they know the Danish-born architect would translate…

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Movie: Dutch designer Hella Jongerius explains why she moved to Berlin and discusses her latest projects in the first of a series of exclusive video interviews Dezeen filmed at her studio in the German capital. 

A Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, Jongerius set up her studio Jongeriuslab in Rotterdam, where she continued to be based for 15 years. In 2008, she left her native country and relocated to Berlin, a move she explains was based on her need for a fresh start.

“I had a beautiful house, a studio round the corner, a nice team and good clients all over the world,” she says. “[But] it was not inspirational for me. I like to be a starter; I’m good when I’m a starter, when I’m young and new in a field or in a culture.”

Despite not having a large design scene, Jongerius says that Berlin’s green spaces and relaxed attitude towards money drew her to the city.

“We decided to go to Berlin because it’s a green city. It’s a big city but it feels like a village,” she explains.

“But the main thing is that it is not about money. There is not the stress of money in the city. It has a relaxed environment, which also makes it creative: things are moving and there’s a young crowd. There’s not a huge design crowd, but I’m not interested in having that close to me.”

Jongerius prefers to travel around the world to meet her clients, which she says she purposefully restricts to a select group.

Alongside longstanding relationships with Maraham, who she designs new textiles for each year, and Vitra, where she is creative director of colours, textiles and surfaces, Jongerius is currently working with airline KLM on its passenger plane interiors and is part of a team of Dutch designers, including Rem Koolhaas and Irma Boom, chosen to re-design the North Delegates’ Lounge at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

“This is the group of projects that I’m now working on” Jongerius says. “I have a very small group of clients; I really am very picky with who I work with. I want to have a longer relationship with clients so that you can build a collection together.”

Working with a few large, established companies also allows Jongerius to keep her studio small, she says.

“I don’t have a hands-on workshop in the studio,” she explains. “I had that before, a large one, but now that I work with larger companies there is a huge team who are doing the hands-on work.”

Jongerius concludes: “I’m spoilt, because the clients do their own research and development for me. It’s a huge network and I am the spider.”

See our previous story about Jongerius’ interior for KLM »
See all our stories about Hella Jongerius »

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culture” – Hella Jongerius appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: with four cities down and four to go, we’re halfway through our Dezeen and MINI World Tour. Before our next stop at London Design Festival in September, here are some movie highlights from our trips to Cape Town, Milan, New York and Berlin.

We kicked off our Dezeen and MINI World Tour at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, where we talked to leading figures in the design world who were speaking at the conference, as well as Design Indaba founder Ravi Naidoo.

Naidoo reflected on what Africa’s burgeoning economy means for design on the continent (above), before taking us on a tour of the upcoming district of Woodstock, a former industrial suburb where many of Cape Town’s designers have moved in recent years.

Architect David Adjaye told us why he believes there is a great opportunity for architects in Africa (above), Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde talked about the clothes he is designing that become transparent when you lie and Ben Terrett, head of design at the UK’s Government Digital Service, explained the ideas behind the design for the new gov.uk website, which later went on to be named Design of the Year 2013.

Read our round-up of this year’s Design Indaba conference »
Watch all our movies from Cape Town »

In April we headed to Milan for the design world’s biggest and most important design fair.

Italian architect Fabio Novembre welcomed us to the city (above) and then took us to some of his favourite areas, including a converted farm near the city centre and the San Siro football stadium.

Designers including Tom Dixon and Marcel Wanders discussed the continued importance of Milan to the design world, despite Italy’s political and economic difficulties, as well as the growing phenomenon of other companies using the event to copy their products (below).

We interviewed a host of top designers including Ron Arad and Naoto Fukasawa about their latest products and spoke to leading design journalists at our dedicated Dezeen and MINI World Tour Studio.

Joseph Grima, former editor of Domus magazine, reflected on the difficult period the city is currently going through, design journalist Kieran Long compared Italy’s current generation of designers to the great masters and Johanna Agerman Ross, editor-in-chief of Disegno magazine, discussed the renewed focus on commerce at this year’s fair.

Watch all our movies from Milan »

Next up was New York for the USA’s leading design week, which this year relaunched itself as NYCxDesign.

Willy Wong, chief creative officer for the city’s marketing and tourism agency, told us how the city is hoping the new festival will help boost its design sector (above).

New York designer Stephen Burks gave us a tour of the west side of town, where he lives and works, before taking us to see the High Line and the new buildings by major international architects including Jean Nouvel, Shigeru Ban, Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano that are springing up next to it (above).

In addition, design journalist Monica Khemsurov took us to all the key exhibitions around the Noho Design District.

Watch all our movies from New York »

The German capital was our most recent destination. We checked out DMY International Design Festival Berlin, where graduates and young brands from over 30 countries presented work in the hangars of the former Tempelhof airport.

DMY Berlin founder Joerg Suermann gave us a tour of this year’s show (above) as well as taking us to some of his favourite spots in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood where he lives.

Watch all our movies from Berlin »

About Dezeen and MINI World Tour:

Dezeen and MINI are travelling the world together this year, visiting eight cities to discover the most exciting new talents, the hottest trends and the most important themes in architecture and design in 2013.

Our Dezeen and MINI World Tour will take in a selection of the best international fairs, conferences and festivals, where we’ll be conducting interviews, making videos and reporting on the most interesting developments.

For the second half of the tour we’ll be heading to London for the London Design Festival from 14-22 September, Singapore for the World Architecture Festival and the INSIDE festival from 2-4 October, Eindhoven for Dutch Design Week from 19-27 October and then Miami for Design Miami at the end of the year from 4-8 December.

www.dezeen.com/miniworldtour

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pit stop appeared first on Dezeen.

Berlin architect and designer Sophie von Bülow knocked through walls between two residences to create this spacious apartment in her home city (+ slideshow).

Sophie von Bülow had to start from scratch when renovating the two apartments in the Prenzlauerberg district of Berlin, which hadn’t been touched since the Second World War.

“The apartments were totally time-worn,” Von Bülow told Dezeen. “Everything had to be done new, which was a lovely challenge.”

Two full-height gaps were created in the walls separating the adjacent apartments and the layout was rearranged to encompass both.

Von Bülow strived to restore and preserve the original features in the property. “We tried to keep the lovely details like the old art nouveau stucco, parts of the old timber piling and the beautiful windows,” she said.

Peeling wallpaper was removed so the walls could be replastered and painted neutral colours, while wooden floors was sanded and oiled.

The bathroom floor was replaced with a screed-like material created by German company Concreed, which was also formed into a sink mounted on a wall of white tiles.

Tables in the living spaces were also designed by Von Bülow, including the coffee table made from square steel tubes and topped with pigmented prestressed concrete.

Rooms are filled with an eclectic mix of furniture, fittings and ornaments including metal toolboxes used for storing small items and a scuffed red pig.

We’ve recently created a new Pinterest board full of apartment designs, which includes a renovated home in Barcelona with triangular floor tiles and a loft conversion in London with a combined staircase and bookshelf.

More projects in Berlin on Dezeen include a museum of architectural drawings with sketches etched into the concrete facade and an interior covered in wrinkly mirrors.

See more apartment interiors »
See more architecture and design in Berlin »

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by Sophie von Bülow appeared first on Dezeen.