Nominated for the DAM award 2024; polis AWARD 2023: 2nd prize, Urban land recycling

In Berlin's Mitte district, between the Spree and Köpenicker Strasse, is the site of the former Norddeutsche Eiswerke, one of the oldest ice cream factories in Germany. Three different components were renovated, converted or newly built here: the residential building facing the street, the former cold store and a new office building.

Today's listed buildings of the residential and industrial complex have been built from 1909 on by Norddeutsche Eiswerke AG (North German Ice Works Company) as a production plant for artificial ice. The ice produced at the sitewas of fundamental importance to grocery markets and gastronomy for cooling food across Berlin and contributed to the industrial rise of the metropolis. After the arrival of electric refrigerators in homes and trade, the ice production was steadily reduced until the site was finally closed in 1995.

The design’s core idea is to open up the heterogenous area and provide a new public access to the Spree river from Köpenicker Straße, with all new and existing volumes built along this access route.

With Eiswerk, GRAFT created a heterogenous inner-city quarter that sensitively complements the historical building stock with a contemporary complexity, turning the area around the old ice works into a unique intersection between the city and the Spree.

GRAFT was commissioned to convert and redevelop a former ice factory on the banks of the River Spree in the Mitte district of Berlin. Located close to the Ostbahnhof train station, the development features a new residential building with commercial units on the ground floor and an additional commercial building with underground parking facilities. 

 

WOHNEN AM SPEICHER
The 15,500 square metre site is bounded to the south by a side-arm of the river, to the north by the traffic-free Louise-Henriette-Steg, and to the east by the Lehnitzstraße from which the residential underground car park is reached.

Eiswerk RESIDENTIAL

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