New Apartmenthouse Johannisstraße / J. Mayer H. Architects
Property development group Euroboden is building a unique apartment house at Johannisstraße in Mitte, Berlin’s downtown district. J. MAYER H. Architects’ design for the building, which will soon neighbor both Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse, reinterprets the classic Berliner Wohnhaus with its multi-unit structure and green interior courtyard.
More images and description after the break.
A suspended lamella facade not only provides privacy but also draws historical reference to the elaborately decorated facades from the Wilhelminian period. Plans for the ground floor facing the street also include a number of commercial spaces. The generously sized apartments will face south-west, opening themselves to a view of the calm, carefully designed courtyard garden. Spacious, breezy transitions to the outside create an open residential experience in the middle of the city that, thanks to the variable heights of the different building levels, also offers an interesting succession of rooms.
The units’ varying floorplans and layouts indicate a number of housing options; condominiums are organized into townhouses with private gardens, classic apartments or penthouses with a spectacular view of the old Friedrichstadt. The integrated design concept, which incorporates everything from façade to stairwells, elevators to apartment interiors, promises a unique spatial and living experience with an eye to high design.
Hey I got an idea. lets build a box and put squiggly things all over it that don’t do anything. FAIL.
This is just what I did for my latest third year project, although at least my elements protects from the sun…
This is a clear example of architecture that separates people. This style has not at all conserved the heritage of social thinking that modernism should have established permanently. It reminds me of similar apartments in Barcelona that the rent for 10500€ a month. This should be a public building, shared and enjoyed by all. I do not want to achieve such a level of social status that I can afford live there, I want no part of it.
Contemporary cliches abound: rounded edges and a porous facade screen. Maybe I’m just cranky, but the over-stylization just seems played out….
this JUrgen gets more and more banal with every new project. I would call it “so gey architecture”
I think the interiors are stylish enough, I just feel like the blob-like exterior skin is contrived. You can make any argument validating a design decision if you use enough words, but in most cases you aren’t convincing anyone besides yourself.
I think the interiors are stylish enough, I just feel like the blob-like exterior skin is contrived. You can make any argument validating a design decision if you use enough words, but in most cases you aren’t convincing anyone besides yourself.
Hard to find anything in this building that isnt contrived or some flashy gimmick. So over this type of thing…
I think it’s beautiful. All the people who commented above me need to get real.
Go and work for three or four years in the multi-unit development industry. It’s a capitalist venture, you need repetition, the developer needs to make a profit, it’s as simple as that. If you can work with those principles and still produce a beautiful building than you are more of an architect than someone like Gehry will ever be.
it’s funny that your nick is Ornament and Crime -A.Loos
and you think this building “it’s beautiful”
ASD – I reserve the right to contradict myself whenever I want to.
Besides, the striated ‘ornamentation’ on this building serves to provide residents with privacy and still maintain views out onto the street. Functional enough for you ?
Working as a proponent of a “capitalist venture” does not quantify sub-par architecture as a work of art. There is an apparent reality with the economy of repetition, yes…but I would hardly argue that we should validate architecture according to your reality. Developer profits and repetition are killing architecture and we should be applauding buildings that refute these ideas rather than exploit them.
Your reference to Gehry is completely inaccurate as well, as Gehry has admitted to catering to the culture of capitalism and the popularity garnered from Bilbao. If anything, Gehry is working with an even more stringent set of guidelines as he has pigeon-holed himself into creating “Gehry” buildings.
All good comments Mr Ballista, my intention was not to elevate this building into the realm of art. But that is really another realm of discussion, is architecture art ? Not really because art is a thing unto itself, architecture needs fulfill a purpose – and as a dividend be beautiful.
Back to topic of architecture as a part of capitalist society, your statement that “we should be applauding buildings that refute these ideas rather than exploit them” is also a null statement simply because that entire thought cannot exist with the current realities in which we work as architects. There will always be a budget and there will always be someone with a balance sheet. I’d like to know when this doesn’t occur and then get a job there.
If you look at the work of REX or OMA, you will see spectacular architecture which exist within this capitalist realm, Koolhaas and Prince-Ramus know this. I like Rem’s comparison of an architect as a surfer on a wave (of the economy, client, budgets etc) who needs to work with the energy of that wave to achieve spectacular results. Sometimes we fail spectacularly too. So Mr Ballista it’s not refuting or exploiting the idea of capitlalism, but working with it.
As for Ghery, I was referring mainly to his work in New York, the West Side IAC Building, which has been panned widely in critical circles. Nicolai Ouroussoff (NYT) said this :
“Rather than mining rich new creative territory, Gehry seems to be holding back. The results — almost pristine by Gehry’s standards — suggest the casual confidence of an aging virtuoso rather than the brash innovation of a rowdy outsider.”
I think Nicolai has it wrong, this is not a casually confident virtuoso but an architect who has swanned in with a magnificent creative concept, and then the bean counters have stepped in … the result is hardly worth celebrating.
It’s sad to see that architecture like this is being made all over the cities. only forms without any purpose or background that can validate it
why validate it?! No, wait, there’s a better one: ” I reserve my right to do purposeless forms whenever I want to.” And it’s your criticism that becomes purposeless. Cannot argue about basic human rights, can you? ;-)
y tilted lines?
Mr.Mayer´s crisis.
Boring.
Uninspired.
backwards.
So 90s
Perhaps we should all wait until it’s completed before passing judgement.
Personally, I don’t believe the screen will end up looking anything like the renders.
The ‘capitalist developer’ (boo! hisss!) that you all keep referring to will doubtless put this element of the design through a rigorous ‘value-engineering’ phase.
I look forward to seeing what eventuates.
And then judging the hell out of it!!!!
am soooo sick of this ” panel crid” i think the interior is great and the presentation is Fabulous.
5:39 PM Mar 19th
New Apartmenthouse Johannisstraße / J. Mayer H. Architects:
Property development group Euroboden is building a.. http://tinyurl.com/yegkyl2
5:40 PM Mar 19th
New Apartmenthouse Johannisstraße / J. Mayer H. Architects http://bit.ly/aWC5Ej
5:51 PM Mar 19th
New Apartmenthouse Johannisstraße / J. Mayer H. Architects http://bit.ly/aWOGco
7:28 PM Mar 19th
RT @archdaily: New Apartmenthouse Johannisstraße / J. Mayer H. Architects http://archdai.ly/dcj6AN
6:43 AM Mar 20th
This J. Mayer H. building is terrible: http://archdai.ly/dcj6AN The old "globby facade" parti in action. (link- @archdaily)