Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni

Studios Frobenstraße 1

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Residential

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Berlin-Schöneberg

YEAR: 2020

GFA: 2.300 sqm

CLIENT: Frobenstraße 1 GbR

AWARDS: BDA Preis – nominated

PHOTOS: © Aya Schamoni

INTERIOR APARTMENT 9: studio f1 (Jack Wilson, Chris Geseke)

Finished in late 2020 Frobenstraße 1 offers for renting 11 variously sized apartments and 2 commercial units in an area of fashionable shops and galleries (Potsdamer Straße), street prostitution, social housing and huge investor driven developments of owner occupied apartments.

Frobenstraße 1 is a chorus member. It is not a Primadonna that steps out to front stage. The choreography of urban choruses is the Großstadt-DNA of Berlin, Paris or Barcelona. It defines the street line and the eaves line. In Frobenstraße 1 the upper facade limit is articulated with a recessed shadow line, a modest but significant detail.

The well behaved chorus anticipates a fictive future block-perimeter conclusion to the south, where there is now a Kindergarten with luxurious trees. Here the pink side wall (fire wall) presents itself for the kids with its giant footprint graphic.

Unlike the Bel étage of a Paris House the first floor here has the standard 3,10 m room height, but its special relation to the street is prescribed by the delicate and continuous railing.

The window composition to the street describes the internal layout where three apartments break out of the standard, but generous room height to 4,80 m and 6,50 m. The grey facade has therefore aspirations to be read as a palazzo, with the projecting penthouse window playing the classic attica.

The garden facade is more domestic, balconies meandering out for afternoon sun and individual planting.

For the interior communal stair and lift black and white tiles dignify homecoming.

Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, Giant footprint
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, window, fenster
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, interior
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, interior, stairs, treppe
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, interior, entrance, eingang
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, interior, eingang, hall, entrance
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, interior, Aufzug, elevator
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, Aya Schamoni, interior
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, plan, Lageplan
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, plan, Grundriss, groundloor, erdgeschoss
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, plan, Grundriss, floor plan
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, plan, Grundriss, floor plan
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, plan, section
Berlin Studios Frobenstrasse, Berlin, plan, section

KALDEWEI COMPETENCE CENTER

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Retail

COUNTRY: German

CITY: Ahlen

YEAR: 2005

COMPETITION: Invited, 1ˢᵗ Prize

GFA: 1.460 sqm

CLIENT: Franz Kaldewei GmbH & Co. KG

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters, © 2024 Walter Knoll

TALE OF THE TUB

Kaldewei are the Mercedes of bath manufacturers. Their robust 3.5mm tubs are formed over an iron mold by robotic arms (the steel screams while being pressed into shape). Tubs are then enameled, the historic but still functioning enamel kiln is glimpsed as the conclusion of the visitor’s trajectory through the new information and exhibition center. Façade planks (wrapping both new visitor facilities, adjacent smelting plant and warehouse) are enameled in the colours used for bathtubs. Entrance is across the paved plan of the original Kaldewei family villa, nearby are terracotta vats used in the nineteenth century for transporting vitreous enamel crystals.

KKC Plan at Ground level - PROMENADE ARCHITECTURAL

The façade Screens - plunging into a tub or choosing a whirlpool bath are discrete activities. The lobby is clad in a cosy mosaic of wooden panels with integrated lights and air outlets. The promenade architectural sequence leads up past a Bizatza tiled shower niche. Below - the wardrobe lurks behind the purple memory of the absent Kaldewei family house.

KKC Plan at upper level -EXHIBITION SALON

Like Carl Andre artworks, bathtub and shower tray designs are clustered in groups of four - spot-lit minimalist sculptures. On the grey salon end-wall are coloured wax circles by artist Gro Luhn. Beyond the salon visitors look down to the firey drama of the enamel kiln.

KKC Plan at lower level – PLUNGE CELLS

Purchasing a luxury whirlpool bath is similar to buying a small car, one demands a test drive or in this case a test bath. Toweling robes are donned in changing pods before progressing to sensuous cells, each with its own gestalt and bath model. Busloads of potential customers arrive from all over Europe engendering interesting sociological observations - Germans each require new bath water while Belgians are happy to sit in the water of the previous bather. Back in the lobby a gallery exhibition of historic bath artifacts was sketched but not realized.

100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm

100 West Cromwell Road

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Mixed Use

COUNTRY: UK

CITY: London

YEAR: 2008

CLIENT: Brookfield Development (UK) LTD, TESCO Stores Limited

PHOTOS MODEL: © Julian Vogt

The raked tower silhouette terminates the wide street axis for those exiting London westward. At its base the tower extends horizontally, a Fitness Arm (window to pool) frames the Tesco Plaza. The E Form begins at the third floor concourse, above existing carpark decks. The south elevation is glazed (winter gardens); the east and west are dark rippled ceramic.

Community Use: The inclusion of an additional swimming pool for the sole use of the local community has increased the Gross Internal Area of the community facility by some 30%. A Community Trust will be established to manage the pool and associated facilities.

100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm_model
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm_model
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm_model
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm:sketch_skizze
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm:sketch_skizze
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm_elevation_section_schnitt_ansicht
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm_plan_grundriss
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm:sketch_skizze
100 west cromwell road_london_residential_wohnturm:sketch_skizze
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague

Spuimarkt

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Shopping // Retail, Leisure, Cultural

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: The Hague

YEAR: 2008

Masterplan 1997

Design Commercial Block 2005-2007

GFA: 36.400 sqm

CLIENT: ING Vastgoed, The Hague; Pathé Theatres B.V.

COLLABORATOR: Bureau Bouwkunde (facilitating architect)

AWARDS: Shopping Centre of the Year NL 2009

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

The Spuimarkt is a permeable block, it hosts the life of the city (tides and eddies of shoppers), it leads Bioscoop and other leisure seekers dramatically upward, and perches them in grand foyers, outlook windows, privileged vantages. The Pathé cinema foyer is a Piranesian space, its stairs flow dramatically upward, they cross, they hover. Just arriving at one of the nine cinemas (2,270 seats) is a cinematic experience – along the way some of the best views in Den Haag.

A richly textured brick facade gives unity and dignity to the whole block; the tactility of the rotated and projecting bricks is comparable to a tweed jacket, its hand-made quality both abstract and traditional. Spuimarkt’s sculptured corporal autonomy is carefully dovetailed into the wider context, mediating between the Bijenkorf and the City Hall to form a trilogy of major urban statements. The building’s varying scales respond to the surrounding context, the grand Grote Marktstraat facade steps down behind to the more intimate street scale of Gedempte Gracht. The lower Pathé cinema entrance reflects the height of the traditional houses it faces.

The sinuous roof silhouette, moulded around the cinema within, is like a topographic landform; an anchoring that gives measure and scale to the complex Den Haag skyline.

Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague, floor plan, grundriss
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague, floor plan, grundriss
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague, floor plan, grundriss
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague, floor plan, grundriss
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague, sketch, drawing
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague
Spuimarkt, The Netherlands, The Hague, sketch, drawing
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters

Landscaping Hotel NY

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Landscape

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: Rotterdam – Kop van Zuid

YEAR: 2006

CLIENT: City of Rotterdam (dS+U), Hotel New York partner

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

The former embarkation point for emigration to the New World – a ‘Holland/America’ theme. Two landscapes (intimate Dutch gardens and a prairie-like American event- space) are divided by a conceptual border. Large scale text (like a Steinberg drawing) is inlayed in the pavement. To date the Dutch side including the Hotel Terrace, Maaskant Pavilion, vent Funnels, playground and intimate Dutch gardens is complete. despite regular dockings of American warships the narrative landscape on the American side of the Dutch-Amerika border remains unexecuted.

Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Plan_Pavillon
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Christian Richters
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Siteplan_Lageplan
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Plan
Hotel New York_Rotterdam_Landscaping_Landschaftsplanung_Sketch_Skizze_Peter Wilson