Potsdamer Straße Botanischen Garten & Residences

Potsdamer Straße Botanischen Garten & Residences

Potsdamer Straße Botanischen Garten & Residences

Potsdamer Straße is a crucial link between Berlin’s Schöneberg district and the ever growing Potsdamer Platz. Like many areas of Berlin, the neighborhood is in an era of transition. The street has an eclectic mix of residential, commercial, and institutional zones. Being a path between two Berlin landmarks, the street itself offers little to no areas of interest or excitement, instead simply links two active sections of the city. Potsdamer Straße is in need of a symbol. It needs an identity of its own. This proposal rejects the passive architectural strategies of the past, and implements an active structure that will define an ever developing area.

The project contains varying types of residential typologies, as well as office, retail, and public space. The architec-ture is sympathetic to the existing rhythms of Potsdamer Straße by keeping similar geometries, floor to floor ratios, and cornice lines. The building then breaks the mold of the typical Berlin block and begins to climb into the sky. The facade and ground treatment are continuations of one-another and provide a common link between the two. The botanical garden bubbles up from the ground and into this continuation, eroding it at its base, and allowing glimpses into the inner workings of the building. A elevated walkway snakes over the ground plane and provides passage into the various shops and lobbies.

Massing & ProgramThe tower began as a play on the typical Berlin courtyard. Liking the idea of a shared public space, but being unenthused by their typical execution; it was decided to create a shared “sky courtyard” within the building that will not only act as communal space for residents, but open up expansive views to the city in both directions. The break in the tower at the cornice line of its neighbor marks a significant programmatic shift in the building. Programatically, the tower is broken up into four typologies: retail, office, live-work lofts, and apartments.

Carve: Urban Corridor

Appropriate Shifts:Tower and Pavillion

Site:Volumetric Fill

Kurfürstenstraße

Pots

dam

mer

Str

aßeLot 2

Lot 1

Massing Allocate Program Create Common Space Separate

RESIDENTIAL

OFFICE

RETAIL

Garden

Garden

Garden

Garden

Garden

Garden

Office

Retail

Office

Live Work Lofts

CafeCirculation

Potsdamer Straße Botanischen GartenIf Berliners in the Potsdamer Straße area of Schöneberg are in need of one thing, it is public space. The street is devoid of any substantial park or public icon. The area needed something that residents could benefit from year round.

Sprouting up from inside the ground is the new Potsdamer Straße Botanischen Garten. By enclosing the space in a crystalline box, greenhouse effect allows the space to take on a Mediterranean climate: something that will be more than welcome during the often frigid Berlin winter.

The specific gardens are separated by shade tolerance and linked together by public space and circulation. It offers a both extroverted and introverted spaces for Berliners to enjoy a coffee with friends, or find a quiet place to read a book or surf the web. The space blurs the line between inside and outside and creates a wide array of spaces for Berliners to escape the often blasé dynamic of typical inner city parks.

Offices & Live-Work LoftsFloors two and three contain the building’s 950 square meters of office space. The open floor-plan allows for customization in office and cubicle layout. The plan could house many small business by putting up movable partition walls, or left open for a larger size company that rents out the whole floor.

Floors four through six house the tower’s seven live work lofts. These elevated town-homes provide a modern living typology for individuals who either own a small business, or simply desire to work from home. The office, is located on the first floor of the home and can accommodate a business of 3-5 employees. The space contains its own half bath, storage, and is separated from the private section of the house. The 144 square meter house contains two bedrooms, two full baths, full kitchen, and living room, and is perfect for a working family of four, or professional couple.

Typical Office Level

First Floor

Second Floor

Third Floor

Offi

ce S

pace

Live

-Wor

k Lo

fts

Typical Floor 8-10

‘Sky Deck’ - Floor 7

Typical Floor 11-12

Sky Deck and Apartment Levels

Benjamin James Greer2 Franklin Hunt RdRockland, Ma 02370

(617) [email protected]