Architectuul | Architects in love

01/10/2013. [VIDEO] Are you in love, too?
metalocus, LAURA CANTO

Sometimes we get to connect in a special way with a building that has existed in our city ever since we can remember. If this building is special not only for its aesthetic, but also for its social and historical context, we cannot help falling in love with it. This is the case of the five young architects that star in "Architects in Love" video episodes: each one chooses a building in Berlin and documents it in a personal and unique way.

Hejduk tower, Architectuul | Architects In love © Creative Common CC-BY-SA. Courtesy of Architectuul.

Hejduk tower, Architectuul | Architects In love © Creative Common CC-BY-SA. Courtesy of Architectuul.

Architectuul | Architects In love © Creative Common CC-BY-SA. Courtesy of Architectuul.

"Architects In Love" consists of five short video episodes with four young Berlin architects who present mostly unknown Berlin buildings to the audience. The videos seek to approach the subject of architecture through a series of candid discussions with young architects in the city of Berlin. Instead of talking in the abstract, the architects present buildings they have grown to love in their own neighbourhood. It is through the prism of these buildings that the project offers a synopsis of the city.

The project was inspired by the 1970s BBC documentary “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles”. In the film the architecture critic Reyner Banham extracts the essence of the Californian city from a multitude of diverse and often disharmonic urban experiences. How disparate architectural manifestations can mould into a unique urban environment might also be one of Berlin’s secrets.

Florian Köhl of FAT Koehl talks about a modernist private residential development from the 1920s by Hans Scharoun as well as a public housing block built in the 1980s by the virtually unknown German architect J.F. Vorderwülbecke. This is intriguing because Florian has worked on the development and creation of alternative co-housing models in Berlin since the 2000s.

Stanley Fuls chose to talk about an all but forgotten early modernist shopping mall on the outskirts of Berlin which was built to supply groceries to the nearby housing estate designed by the seminal Bruno Taut. Stanley diligently relates the historic context and importance of its conservation. He formerly worked with Foster + Partners and was involved with the restoration of the Reichstag.

Magma Architecture discuss the inspiration they draw from Hans Scharoun’s design philosophy by means of the “Berliner Philharmonie”, a concert hall still unparalleled in its physical audacity as well as its auditive qualities.

The Englishman Robert Slinger discusses a residential tower, one of the rare realisations of the late New York architect John Hejduk, a building he experienced and learned to love as one of the tower’s tenants over several years.

For now, we leave you with the first episode: Kreuzberg Tower, built by Hejduk in 1988.