Neues Kranzler Eck/ Berlin, Germany/ 2001

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Jahn partnered with the City of Berlin, Germany, in its efforts to achieve a critical reconstruction of the scarred urban landscape. Our proposal for Neues Kranzler Eck is delicately inserted into the fabric of the historic city, which contains existing landmarked buildings by Hans Dustmann, introducing much-needed office, commercial, and residential spaces rested upon a unified landscape.

The dynamic plan arrangement creates a succession of varied urban spaces that thread between Kurfürstendamm and Kantstrasse, with the groundscape passing beneath “gates” and opening into larger pockets of public space. The building form converses with the surrounding context as it weaves across the site. Planes of glass dematerialize its boundaries as the building extends gently above the existing department store. The ultra-transparent composition of glass, stainless steel, and concrete establishes a quiet contrast with the context, presenting an efficient, adaptable, and urbanistically responsible model for the reconstruction of Berlin.