Apartment Block in the Hansaviertel, Berlín
Aalto was one of fifty-three internationally renowned architects from fourteen countries who were
invited in 1955 to design a block of flats for the 1957 Interbau Exhibition. The drawings for his first
‘Vorprojekt Haus 19’ are dated February 1955, and show a twelve-storey block with an asymmetrical
ground plan and ten apartments per storey.
The next plan, ‘Vorprojekt Haus 15’, had a different site and orientation. Again twelve storeys high,
the house was divided into two wings with entrances from the intermediate courtyard. The
prefabricated concrete units are clearly visible in the facades, which have dominating balconies that
Aalto thought of as a kind of open atrium. The idea was to provide each flat with some of the contact
with nature that the single-family house offers. The smallish flats are set around the living room and
the adjoining atrium balcony.
The plan that was finally built, ‘Haus 16’, resembles the ‘Vorprojekt Haus 15’, though the site had
again changed. Aalto placed a free-form screening wall between the two stairwells at ground floor.
The building contains 78 apartments on eight storeys. One of these was furnished for the 1957
exhibition with Aalto furniture to plans he had originally drawn up for the H55 exhibition in 1955 in
Helsingborg.
The Hansaviertel residential area in West Berlin was built for the 1957 Interbau Building Exhibition.
After the devastation of World War II, the area was rebuilt following principles of international
Architectural Modernism. 53 architects from 14 different countries were invited to the project, Alvar
Aalto being one of them. In Aalto’s office, design work for the apartment building began in 1954.
Aalto made plans for several potential sites around the exhibition area until it was decided to build the
“Haus 16” project right in the heart of Hansaviertel, near Hansaplatz Underground Station.
The design of the building was innovative. The building tilts slightly to the west and opens more to
the east, allowing natural light to reach all of the apartments. Viewed from the west, the building looks
straightforward, but from the east it appears as if it were two separate house buildings. In the middle
between the two main bodies, the column-supported, open and covered outdoor atrium connects the
opposite sides of the building. This space connects to two separate staircases and elevators, reaching
the several floors of the building. This covered outdoor space also gives access to the common
courtyard.
The lower floor of the building has 4 apartments on each side and the upper floors each feature 5
apartments. There are 8 floors in the building, which means that there are 78 apartments in total. The
largest apartments are 83-90m² in area, and the smallest ones 35m². The building features more larger
apartments than smaller ones. The largest apartments were designed according to a familiar courtyard
structure, with different spaces grouped around a general purpose room, usually used as a living room,
placed in the center. Balconies were also provided to all apartments, to create open-air liveable space
for the residents. During the 1957 Interbau exhibition, one of the apartments in the building was open
for visits, furnished with Artek furniture.
The Hansaviertel area consists mainly of high-rise apartment buildings and of some smaller
residential buildings. Placement of buildings was designed in order to maximise natural daylight
exposure and good park views for the apartments. Most of the buildings in the area are of concrete
construction and feature predominantly white and gray color.
