Zelterstrasse 5 residential urban design project, Berlin

Zelterstrasse 5 residential urban design project, Berlin is the twenty-sixth article on architecture projects from practice. The special aspect of this project is the new concept of a mixed-use residential urban design project of a housing village form. The urban design project is located on the north side of Berlin in the Prenzlauerberg area.  This architecture and urban development are part of the Berlin urban fabric that includes a large-scale block of small individual inward-looking buildings with a void courtyard in the middle. The urban design follows the typical urban fabric style of having a courtyard but not enclosed from all sides. The project was led by the architect’s firms and a group of aspiring homeowners. The urban design development was implemented through a joint venture. Smarthoming coordinated the 72 partners in construction. For that, there were no developers involved thus the residential unit prices came to be cheap. The two parameters of the buildings surround an internal open space, a garden area, that is connected to the main roads from openings through the ground floor parking areas. See Figure 1, the site plan of the project from Google.

The urban design and architecture of this development include 45 residential building units.  A 23-townhouse building of three stories with access from the main road and access from below the car park. These townhouses have the main road façade. On the other side are the 10 two-story garden houses of large scale in terms of area with access to the internal garden and access from the ground floor parking. On top of them are the three-story 12 penthouses having the same access. 22 apartments, 15 shops, and underground parking for 12 cars. The total gross floor area is 9100 m² and the residential floor area is 6650 m². The ground floor garden and open space are raised to the first-floor level to create a parking floor and entry from the main road. The building’s external form differs from the front side to the rear side which looks into the garden of the whole bock See Figure 2, 3 of the front side and rear side photos.

The 72 owners fulfilled their requirements for the internal interiors in coordination with all parties involved designers and the construction company. All parts of the development were planned and designed by owners and architectural firms. The urban designer wanted to give the sense of village housing of residential units gathered around a green space. See Figure 4 the internal courtyard of the rear side of the project showing the garden space.

The ground floor has four core areas, the townhouse entrances from the main road and access below one of the units to the car park. The garage is the car park at the ground floor level (see 3d view in Figure 5).  The garden homes in the backside access from parking and garden level. The garden level is the central area raised to the first floor. See Figure 5, right the development section through all its components.

In the ground floor plan of all the development, it is apparent that the architecture firm combined different layouts for the townhouses as they are not all typical. The garden houses include on the ground floor level common vertical circulation, and staircases, leading to the penthouse entrances. The garden on the first floor has access through vertical circulation from the two sides the townhouses and the garden house side See Figure 6 the ground floor plan of all the development.

Figure 7 shows all the townhouse floors, ground floor (+0), first floor, second floor, third floor, and the roof floor. All the development roofs have a roof garden also. At ground floor level is the main entrance with the vertical circulation leading to the first floor and the parking lot in front with access to the garage. The first-floor level has a small recess as a terrace area for sitting in the garden, and the kitchen and living area. The second floor has two bedrooms, and the third floor is one bedroom with a terrace leading to the roof floor.

The garden house plans as illustrated in Figure 8, are the main entrance from the first floor (+1 level), and it has all the services, kitchen, and living, from it the staircase leads to the second floor with a double volume space to a bedroom and bath. From the second floor through the staircase to the third floor of a bedroom and services. The third floor has a balcony.

The Penthouse starts from the fourth floor as illustrated on the ground floor of the development (figure 7) from a common vertical circulation leading to it. The sixth floor has the living area and kitchen while the fourth and fifth have bedrooms and related services. The sixth floor has a terrace leading to the roof floor. See Figure 9, the penthouse floor plans and terrace.