Eiswerk Building, Berlin Housing, Germany, German Apartments, Architecture Photography
Eiswerk Building in Berlin
26 Nov 2022
Design: GRAFT
Location: Berlin, Germany

Photos: Trockland, Noam Rosenthal
Eiswerk Building, Germany
In 2017, GRAFT was commissioned with the redevelopment and transformation of the former Eiswerk site, located between the Spree and Köpenicker Straße in Berlin’s Mitte district. GRAFT’s architecture focused on the redevelopment of the former cooling house and residential building and the part of the site situated on the Spree.

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 site was 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.

The revitalized building stock is complemented by a new residential volume with commercial units (Haus B) on Köpenicker Straße, which, with its graduated entrance portal, establishes a ne...