FONTANE HAUS | Berlin, Germany | 9100 m² | 2014

Starting from the cultural center of the Märkisches Viertel, an aging urban planning vision from the 1960s, the newly renovated Fontane House, in black and white, provides the color canon for the outdoor space. The existing black natural stone forecourt places the development on a uniform, black, material tableau. At the junctions of the pathways and axes, new square inlays and adaptations of the existing structure compose the network. All surfacing is black, while the object fixtures and material inlays are white. An echo from the past, the newly planted ginkgo trees with their autumnal yellow cite the original Fontane House. As the new focal point of the complex, 45 white concrete modules are arranged in the grid of the existing forecourt, the X-Bank, marking the Fontane House as a destination in the Märkisches Viertel, and the most visible sign of the numerous changes in the surroundings.

ARCHITECT: Nemesis Aesthetics, Kassel | CLIENT: Bezirksamt Reinickendorf | PHOTOS: © Hanns Joosten