What is urban life? It is a type of quality of living that arises from the exclusive experience of cities – the multifacetedness, the density, and the dynamics of possibilities, life designs, stories and histories. Where could this experience be more powerfully present than in the heart of Berlin, where the great dividing lines of history meet with the intricate fabric of neighbourhoods and their artistic and cultural life? An emblematic example of this is Arkonahöfe: established as a brewery, the site has served in its history as a sewing factory, a cinema and rehearsal space for East Germany’s TV ballet company directly adjacent to the Wall and its deadly perimeter; later it was a hangout for punk bands and the dissidents of the Protestant opposition movement; finally it became a home to independent labels, creative design offices, and co-working spaces spaces in the up-and-coming centre of the new capital. This place encapsulates history and fosters new ideas for living and working that can thrive only in the open design of one-hundred-year-old industrial architecture.
An aura of transformation, transparence, and experiment is woven into this architectural icon of history with its high windows and Berlin-style arched ceilings. From this we drew our inspiration as we became part of the next metamorphosis of this unique site. We developed the brand design and the communication strategy, after coming up with the idea and, most importantly, the naming – a nod to the place’s urban openness: A SPACE. A for Arkonaplatz, for alternative and antithesis, but also A as in Class A, the highest rating for quality of living and architectural design. And finally A as the Alpha, the beginning of new living in a town in which the only thing that persists is constant change.
Client: ZIEGERT Bank- und Immobilienconsulting GmbH
Services: Research, analysis, workshops, brand character, naming, corporate design, storytelling, text, implementation, photography
Shortlist – Fedrigoni Card Couture Award 2017
Nominated – German Design Award 2018