District | Mitte |
Construction dates | 1980–1985 |
Apartment buildings | 295 |
Listed building | no |
About the project
Creating housing while filling vacant lots in the center of the city
Architects & planning partners
Eckart Schmidt, Klaus Berger, Eduard Vogler, Ulrich Kunc
Interviews (in German)
"On this uppermost level, the floor space was so small that you couldn’t turn it into a separate apartment. Then we connected it to the apartment underneath, and already you had a maisonette apartment. Who had such things in the GDR? And I have to admit that then politics came into play. These apartments were assigned to commendable citizens, including Hermann Henselmann and the actor Minetti or the publishing house director Gruner."
Eckart Schmidt in Uta Kolano, Wolfgang Gaube, Plattenköpfe, Jeder Quadratmeter Du, Interview filmed by DOKWORKERS on behalf of WBM Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte (2016).
"The new urban design aims to surround the southern part of the center of the city, which is predominantly defined by central social functions, with a four-story building and high-rises; to interweave closely residential areas with social infrastructure; and to create optimal connections between housing and workplaces."
Adalbert Behr in Ehrhardt Gisske, ed., Bauen in Berlin, 1973 bis 1987 (Berlin, 1987).
"The apartment building on Spittelmarkt marked the conclusion of an important inner-city ensemble in the capital Berlin. As with all the projects of our housing construction program, one of our concerns with this building, which is a very prominent part of the
urban planning, was combining good design with a favorable relationship of effort and use."
Bauakademie der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Architektur der DDR, no. 1 (Berlin, 1987).