Studios Frobenstraße 1

Studios Frobenstraße 1 | Berlin, Germany | 2020
[BOLLES+WILSON]

Finished in late 2020 Frobenstraße 1 offers for renting 11 variously sized apartments and 2 commercial units in an area of fashionable shops, galleries, street prostitution, social housing, and huge investor-driven developments for owner-occupied apartments.

Frobenstraße 1 is a chorus member. It is not a Primadonna that steps out to the front stage. The choreography of urban choruses is the metropolis-DNA of Berlin, Paris, or Barcelona. It defines the street line and the eaves line. In Frobenstraße 1 the upper facade limit is articulated with a recessed shadow line, a modest but significant detail.

The well-behaved chorus anticipates a fictive future block-perimeter conclusion to the south, where there is now a Kindergarten (with luxurious trees). Here the pink sidewall (firewall) presents itself to the kids with its giant footprint graphic.

Unlike the Belle Etage of a Paris House, the first floor has the standard 3,10m room height, but its special relation to the street is prescribed by the delicate and continuous railing. The window composition to the street describes the internal layout where three apartments break out of the standard, but generous 3,10m room height to 4,80m and 6,50m. The grey facade has therefore aspirations to be read as a palazzo, with the projecting penthouse window playing the classic Attica.

The garden facade is more domestic, balconies meandering out for afternoon sun and individual planting. For the interior communal stair and lift noble black and white tiles dignify homecoming. Text description by the architects | Visit www.theradicalproject.com to read more about the project.