Paulsternstrasse

The Paulsternstrasse site is surrounded by the loose sprinkling of industrial buildings and simple, modern residential buildings from the 1930s to 1970s that characterizes the undifferentiated area between the districts of Siemensstadt and Haselhorst. Previously used for allotment gardens, it is now being developed for Berlin’s building associations as a high-density neighbourhood with rental flats. Since noise pollution is a serious issue, the ensemble of twenty-four individual buildings forms a perimeter block that is closed on all sides except towards the north-west, where there are further residential buildings. The multi-storey car park on the southern side of the new development also functions as a barrier against noise from the adjacent packaging company. The buildings on the eastern and western sides of the block are alternately six and seven storeys high; the taller buildings are set back from the street to articulate the block’s profile. While the ten-storey building at the head of the development on the corner of Gartenfelder Strasse provides some flats for families, its main focus is on one-room apartments. Here the development reveals its urban character, hugging the street corner to create both an urban space with shops on the ground floor and a concise curved form evoking the housing developments in Berlin designed by such modernist architects as Salvisberg, Wagner, and Taut.