palimpsest

Riehmers Hofgarten, Berlin

Bachelor - Thesis
free topic, summer 2019
Prof. Heike Büttner
Basic and Advanced Studies in Philosophy and Practice of Architecture
Bauhaus-University Weimar

from Latin palimpsestus;
from Ancient Greek πάλιν palin "again" and ψάειν psaein "to rub, scrape away".

Redensification of the historic buildng ensemble
Analysis and Synthesis of its main facade into a new sequence

Palimpsest is realized on a building ensemble from the 1890s, Riehmers Hofgarten, in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The design starts with the redensification in the inner courtyard with three new buildings, connected by an underground passage. This translates the frequency of the ground plan (building setbacks and leaps) into a vertical plane. The previous program of Riehmers Hof: culture and living, is continued by placing the living space on the upper floors and a cultural center with cinema, art gallery and garage in the underground passage. The bachelor thesis focuses on the reinterpretation of the historic facades of Riehmer's Hofgarten. This project provides a spatial view of the façade structure, its layers and elements. The analytic phase is concluded with a series of experimental drawings that explore the extraction and decomposition of key elements such as columns, pilasters, and ashlar work. The synthetic phase, inspired by Sergiej Eisenstein's film and writings, is the design of the new façade sequence. On the formal level, it takes place through a progressive dissection of facade layers, extraction of key elements, transformation of these elements by using their sections or changing their tectonic expression, up to full deconstruction from the individual components. On the example of Bossenstein one can see how the optical heaviness of the first floors is eventually transformed into a tectonically light skyscraper, created from the deconstructed stone surface. As a result, a synthetic score the Riehmers Hofgarten redensification is transcribed; from the original façade to the complete overwriting and a degre zero of the resemblance with the original. The example of Bossenstein shows how the strong gravity of the first floors of a tectonically light skyscraper, created from the deconstructed ashlar forms, is written a score of redensification of the façade components, starting with a full overwriting of the original.

Faccade Yorckstrasse: Analysis of the facade elements, ex- traction and dissolution of details

The analytical reading of the facade is followed by a desynthesis of the repeating sequences and motifs and results in layering the facade into levels of windows, bossage, details as well as vertical and horizontal components. These in-depth analysis, in form of linear drawings, lead to the speculative extraction of a vertical facade module that became subject to further experimental transformations. As a result, a new resonance arises between an element within its hierarchical position in the facade and its potential independence as a free limb that can be upscaled and transformed. The transformation of the bossage stones demonstrates how their robust surface and the tectonic heaviness of the first stories is contrasted with a tectonically light high-rise building which was created from the deconstructed bossage forms. As if the scaled up elements, after achieving a critical mass, had to decompose into themselves and could only reappear with a changed plasticity.

To read the full thesis essay, click here.