Dome of the Reichstag building
The Cube, Berlin
Lobby of DG Bank Building, Berlin Pariser Platz
"Treptowers", Berlin-Treptow with historic Oberbaum Bridge
For the photographic approach glass in architecture is a big gift. Looking inside, looking through, seeing reflections. Contrast, context, color. So many options! Always in narrowly lined structures and fantastic geometric shape.
My very favourite building is "the Cube" right in front of Berlin's "Main Station". It's magic comes from being like a mirror cabinet turned inside out. The neighbourhood gets caught in the crystal clear mirrors: Federal Parliament and Chancellery, the station, people on the street, sky and light. A very generous gesture brings the location into a new context.
Or even more flowery: the Cube reminds of Berlin's famous author E.T.A. Hoffmann and his haunted stories, where things all of a sudden start to become unreal, or at least lose their bearings.
Project K40 by BSA architects
K40 is a building by Roger Baumgarten that is built from "Ultraleichtbeton", a special kind of lightweight porous concrete which doesn't need any finishment. No paint no plaster, not outside nor inside. A wall is just a wall – monolithic construction. Thick and very well isolated.
The B1 building by Renzo Piano, No.11 Potsdamer Platz, originally is inspired from an idea by Mies van der Rohe of 1921. The triangle shape is pretty clear and the glass facade is truely impressive. The photographic problem is, that the shiny tower in the picture is still impressive, but never shows it's natural impression.
As part of the restructuring process of the district, B1's ground level has been re-designed during the last years. To gain more rental space the lobby has become much smaller and was split for a new café. The canopy, once proportioned regarding the building as a whole, was replaced by a tiny glass construction that allows daylight to reach the interior.
James Simon Gallery is a multi-purpose building added into the historic ensemble of Museum Island right in the old city center of Berlin.
It is an effort to get everything: A central gateway and ticketing centre for all museums in the district, a lecture hall and some exhibition space. Deeply dug into the mud on which Berlin's old city center is erected, the underground levels are truly a kind of boat, and the surface reminds of Athen's Acropolis – in a somehow modern interpretation.
