OFFICE 256

If in the past the very character of the housing block in Berlin was ‘defining’ for its fragmented character, today the problem of densification should exactly do that. For this housing complex in Berlin we present as a new addition to its increasingly dense urban landscape a housing block with a particular urban character. Half object, half urban block, the design seeks to create a sense of relative autonomy for a building that exists on ‘second row’, thus creating its own datum, its own point of reference. This drop like building inhabits the center of the block. It gives the deep area between canal, street, first row and back row an identity that consciously refers to the canal as an abstraction, without ever quite literally representing it. The housing complex provides radically sustainable housing, in spatially simple yet surprisingly complex constellations. By taking a distance from the western border, an extra facade is created, or rather: the façade is allowed to continue around the building, creating a block with no front or back: an autnomous object.