Bootshaus „Elektra“, Berlin–Oberschöneweide, Peter Behrens, 1910/11

July 2014

This house strikes the eye by a funny proportion. From the street side – where the usually published photos are taken from – it seems as if the roof ran down a little too much, the two upper storeys being covered with clinkers. Boathouses in general should promise fun indeed, not just this one by Behrens. The river side shows a more monumental sight, but also a shabbiness (not ugly) and disuse. But some not-too-hasty restoration works took place in the summer as went there, so it may already look different.

Alléhusene, Gentofte, Denmark, Arne Jacobsen 1949-1953

May 2013

At the end of a long, wonderful walk on a beautiful spring day, I am looking for the train station to go back to Copenhagen. The street is blocked, but I meet a man who shows me the way to the station. We talk a little and I say I am here because of architecture. „I have just been to Dubai, you should see the architecture there.“ How to tell him that the house he lives in is way more interesting for me than any starchitect zoo? I did try, don’t know if I succeeded though.

Siedlung „Am Heidehof“, Berlin, Paul Mebes, Paul Emmerich, 1923-25

August 2014

An appealing mix of brick, gothic arches, half-streets, half-gardens and some tame nature. One of my favourite garden cities in Berlin. 

Three Blocks of Flats, Erwin Gutkind, Berlin

May - September 2014

I spotted the first one in the evening sun, stared for a while and then had to cross the street to look closer. All of them are large blocks, but with no sense of monotony, no matter their length. A play of recesses and projections – as in Ollenhauer Straße, or just a perfect layering of concrete, plastered wall and bricks – as at the Sonnenhof. There are at least two types of bricks and something English about their minute use. It was to England where Erwin Gutkind fled in 1933. As so many others from the turbulent but grand Weimar times, another lost talent for Germany.

Wohnblock, Ollenhauerstr., Erwin Gutkind, 1927-28:

„Sonnenhof“, Marie Curie Allee, Erwin Gutkind, 1926/27:

Wohnanalage Thulestrasse; Erwin Gutkind, 1925-27:

Gartenstadt Falkenberg, Berlin, Bruno Taut, 1913-1915

April 2014

Spring has come early this year; the place is full of colours, more than just those that Taut designed one hundred years ago for the façades. With everything in bloom this may look almost kitschy, but was this sunny Sunday my fault? I could not peek inside, but I noticed one fact: pathways to the black-and-orange row houses are separate, but there are no fences among the gardens. Luckily the smallest, oldest and most distant of the Berlin's six Unesco-protected Siedlungen seems to live its own life.

Bråkdalbelgen, Rondane (1915 m)

July 2013

After a steep walk on masses of grey rocks, I am on the hilltop. On the east, a cliff falls down several hundred metres to the valley. The other peaks are close – Ljosåbelgen, Storsmeden, Trolltinden. Far in the north I see the ridge of Snøhetta. I turn back to the west where I came from – a storm is approaching through Gudbrandsdalen. It trundles along the valley. Stange, watching the rainy clouds and lightings from above, being safe for the moment at this exposed place. Time to go back.  Before long, the white fog reaches me.