Dulux Study Tour 2024

Honouring the past, present and future

Berlin's architecture stands as a testament to the city’s tumultuous history, reflecting periods of prosperity, division and reunification.

“Berlin is a city of many cities,” architect Hans Schneider, a partner at the J. Mayer H und Partner, told the winners of the 2024 Australian Institute of Architects Dulux Study Tour on their visit to his studio in the Berlin neighbourhood of Charlottenburg. “There is not one Berlin style.”

“There’s certainly a lot of contrast,” said Flynn Carr, one of five winners on the study tour “a lot of interesting overlays when it comes to post-war occupation, particularly with the Berlin Wall dividing East and West Berlin and the responses to that.”

Most of Berlin has a height limit of 22 metres, and much of its urban fabric is dominated by long blocks with a succession of buildings deep into the site and courtyards in between.

“Berlin, like Tokyo, has this juxtaposition of old and new side by side, but within Berlin, it’s like within an overarching order. There’s more consistency of building high and set back and typology,” said Emma Chrisp. “There’s a beautiful consistency of light quality and environment quality because there are no streets that are being grossly towered over.”

Mike Sneyd said one of his key learnings from Berlin and the city’s architects is how the built environment is mitigating climate change and energy consumption. “One of the lessons I took out of this was to build with simplicity in mind.”

The Berlin itinerary included Berlin City Models exhibition, St Agnes, Jewish Museum, Kreuzberg Tower, Former Berlin Flower Market, Park am Gleisdreieck, Kulturforum New National Gallery, Barkow Leibinger, J Mayer H und Partner, Wohnregal, Berlin Studio, and Terrassenhaus/Lobe Block.

Read more about the Berlin visit

Reflections: Day 4

By Jamileh Jahangiri

As we embarked on an architectural adventure through Berlin, the stark contrast to the bustling metropolis of Japan's capital was evident.

A highlight of the day for me was former Catholic cathedral St. Agnes. Originally designed by Werner Duttmann, this site was meticulously converted by Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burian, and Riegler Riewe Architekten. Their minimal interventions preserved the building's historical and architectural significance, a testament to thoughtful conservation.

We visited John Hejduk's Kreuzberg Tower project and the former Berlin Flower Market (IBeB) by lfau + Heide & van Beckerath. Each site illustrated Berlin's innovative approaches to urban development and community building while sitting next to the historic part of the city.

The IBeB building is a mixed-use development is a model for sustainable urban living. The studios and studio apartments include condominiums and cooperative rentals, promoting a social mix in the building. There is also space for a non-profit community organisation and three commercial units.

Reflecting on the day, I see that the architectural interventions in Berlin propose a dialogue between old and new, showing architecture's responsibility to history. Architects have a responsibility to the existing, whether a building such as St Agnes, landscape such as Park am Gleisdreieck or the Australian landscape.

Jamileh Jahangiri is the founder of Studio Orsi.

Reflections: Day 5

By Emma Chrisp

Ready for our second day in Berlin, we stepped into Barkow Leibinger where Martina Bauer explained how the practice focused on the crafted exploration of materiality and rigorous commitment to practical means of production backed by research and academia. She encouraged us to talk to people who make things and have a deep appreciation for the collaborative contribution of many hands in construction.

At J Mayer H und Partner, Hans Schneider explained that working with agility between artistic and architectural practice enables experimentation and innovation, which underpins its impressively dynamic portfolio. Its exploration of organic forms through new technology echoes themes around innovation and experimentation articulated by Brauer, highlighting parallels between the two practices with distinct stylistic expressions.

We also visited the Wohnregal project, a single-span structure made precast concrete where an uncanny lightness emerges in structural joints from an appreciation of fabrication and construction tolerance, which excitingly offers an open-ended potential for repurposing.

Running through the day and across a diverse cross-section of practices and projects was a consistently grounded sense of both humility and innovation. Characteristics of investment and ingenuity actively contribute to the ever-evolving city, both respectful and repurposing through appreciation of what is an optimism for what could be.

There is a contagious energy in Berlin that feels as much about the people as the place, I finished the day feeling like I had grasped something integral about the place and deeply appreciative of what was so openly shared.

Emma Chrisp is an associate at Hayball

Reflections: Day 6

By Simona Falvo

Terrassenhaus/Lobe Block by Brandlhuber + Emde, Burian and Muck Petzet Architekten, was built on a former landfill and scrap heap site. The project emerges from, and pays homage to, the typical Berlin Hofe or courtyard. It is a multipurpose building with a cafe, garden, public and private spaces, retail shops and gallery that combines different forms of use, and potentially, ways of living.

Inherently utopian and democratic in its vision and conceptual underpinnings, the building provokes a typological update of the adjoining buildings through its staggered, ziggurat form with deep terraces and maximised areas of public, external spaces throughout the building – spaces which typically are considered and designed as private.

Built primarily of concrete, the building is spectacular and completely unique within its context yet it harmoniously respects existing alignments and arrangements. This, along with its loose landscaping, distinctive functions, and spaces of social assemblage, results in thousands of rental applications per year.

Ultimately, this is a place where people gather and want to be.

The project is also fundamentally political. We serendipitously met the English client Olivia Reynolds who spoke passionately about ethical investment, consumption, maintenance issues, and the tenuous future operations of the project, but equally, she was optimistic and looked forward to "getting through the next 20 years".

It is in these moments and through conversations such as this, that we are reminded about the importance of good clients who collaborate with their architects to create powerful, innovative designs, that, although there may be some flaws, remain true to their vision.

Simona Falvo is director of Trower Falvo Architects.