SCULPTURE INSTEAD OF ROADSIDE STRUCTURE—A CONVERSATION WITH THE ARCHITECTS AXTHELM AND ROLVIEN
Berlin-Mitte—“there is currently nowhere in Germany that’s more prominent for building a house,” says Annette Axthelm. “The whole world wants to be here.” Although Berlin-Mitte was initially “a wasteland, which had no meaning after the fall of the wall—apart from the historical meaning,” Henner Rolvien explains.
The Potsdam-based architects have designed a residential building for the real estate company Ziegert Immobilien. It is currently built at the Neustädtischer Kirchplatz, about 600 meters from the Brandenburg Gate. “It is an honor for us to be allowed to build there,” says Axthelm. When she and Rolvien saw the previously undeveloped property for the first time, one thing was clear: “Here you have the opportunity to build something different. Here, a sculpture can be created—not just a roadside structure.”
The building will be called Lux, because light is the main theme of the design. “And there are few sites where you can glorify this theme like this,” says Axthelm. “It’s also about a way of life that this city radiates,” adds Rolvien—a feeling of spaciousness and freshness that this building will capture with floor-to-ceiling windows, a light-filled courtyard and a sophisticated interaction between inside and outside.
