The most common type of housing in Berlin is the deep 19th century block with primary and secondary courtyards. The 1920s left their traces in the form of big garden cities, workers settlements with low density and a lot of green. Bruno Taut has designed the most known example with his "Hufeisensiedlung" (Horseshoe Estate). After the two world wars and with two contrary political systems in east and west, different strategies in architecture and urbanism have been applied. In West-Berlin a building exhibition, the IBA 57, has been organised. The results still can be seen in the Hansaviertel. Not much later Le Corbusier built an Unité d´Habitation, a "housing machine", the only one out of five realised outside France.

In East-Berlin the policy consisted of mass housing slabs made of prefab elements, providing an equally high standard for the working class. De "Plattenbau" was applied not only in new suburbs but also for the creation of representative boulevards (Karl-Marx-Allee) and for small scale historical reconstruction (Nikolaiviertel). During the IBA 87 in West-Berlin many well known architects designed new housing projects within the existing city structure. Recently Berlin is developing residential extensions on waterfront locations such as Rummelsburg Bay and the Water-City Spandau. And also the 19th century neighbourhoods have been updated with creative architectural infills.In Oost-Berlijn onstonden verschillende woonwijken gebaseerd op prefab-bouwmethodes. De Plattenbau werd toegepast zowel voor representatieve boulevards (Karl-Marx-Allee) als ook voor massa-woningbouw (Marzahn, Hellersdorf) en laat in de jaren tachtig was er ook zoiets als een kleinschalige postmoderne variant (Nikolaiviertel). In het kader van de IBA 87 realiseerden een groot aantal bekende architecten binnenstededelijke wooningbouwprojecten. Tegenwoordig worden met de Wasserstadt Spandau en de Rummelsburger Bucht nieuwe ambiteuze stadsontwikkelingsprojecten gerealiseerd. En ook in de oude 19e eeuwse kwartieren zijn vele recente en creatieve invullingen met woonfunctie te vinden.

For guided tours or custom made programs focussing on Berlin housing projects and residential architecture, we invite you to contact us for further information.