"Only that Endures which Changes"

more recent drawings from berlin...

Straulaur Alle. This site will become expensive condos, 2009

nice deco detail clock on old brewery building at KulturBraurie

view from roof at artist colony, "Work Etage!"

cable/battery factory

AEG Turbine Hall by architect Peter Behrens, 1910

cable/battery factory, (second attempt)

current elevation drawing over 1835 plans of KulturBrauerie

Pfefferburg (Pepper Mountain) brewery, serial sketch of views from courtyard

cable/battery factory, crane building converted into cafe

Straulaer Alle plan

R.A.W. Tempel, old ammunition storage/national rail buildings, now a skatehall/ gallery/ climbing wall..

old map of KulturBraurie location

Straulaer Alle

Recent Photos

PROJECT

My aim over the next year is to address a long-standing personal inquiry about the social role of architecture. After exposure to cases of industrial adaptive re-use (converted textile mills and factories), I found this alternative kind of (alternative to?) architecture, often a provocative challenge to common precepts about the built environment. These buildings are timepieces of the industrial revolution, often since abandoned, leaving holes in the fabric of once lively urban centers. These buildings shared similar historical functions, but because of their inherently flexible and expansive nature of industry-suited design, their adaptive potentials are diversified and versatile. Such massive abandoned spaces invite imagination and require resourcefulness- they attract an eclectic mix of artists and visionaries looking for big, cheap space in the 21st century, post industrial urban context.
This trend proliferates in regions of Europe, perhaps where there are favorable economic or cultural conditions (labor cheaper than materials, for instance), or some ingrained penchant for recycling versus building anew.
I hope to find out more about progressive ways to shape our built environment through specific examples across Europe, that address environmental and social concerns (energy and raw material consumption, and urban regeneration). Primarily I will be drawing sites, because drawing conduces dialog between mind and subject more than passive or removed observation techniques. (i.e., I am no photographer, but these are snapshots for reference and to share with you!)

"Only that Endures which Changes" - Janis Rainis

Site Itinerary - so far, *upcoming

PROJECT

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