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0132 Option Lots ×

In the GDR in the 1980s, inner-city vacant lots were filled with prefabricated buildings. This development took place parallel to the rediscovery of the city as a place to live in West Germany (“Behutsame Stadterneuerung”, gentle urban renewal). Due to the serial construction system that was applied, there were always areas that remained between the “Platte” (the slab) and the existing neighboring buildings. Those narrow gaps, often wedge-shaped pieces of undeveloped land with average lengths around ten meters and widths between 0.4 and 2.5 meters, were usually clad with fake facades. Brandlhuber+ mapped 58 such niches in Berlin-Mitte in the framework of their research on the accessibility of sought-after residential areas. By conceiving them as “Option Lots,” Brandlhuber+ allude to the potential of appropriation of these places of urban indeterminacy, as they have no relevance as real estate properties whatsoever. The Berlin Option Lots thus refer to the New York Fake Estates of Gordon Matta-Clark, who in the 1970s bought narrow strips of land at auction due to inaccuracies in land surveying and urban planning.

Category
Project
Place
Berlin
Year
2010
Collaboration
Brandlhuber+ Emde, Burlon
Team
Elsa Beniada, Tobias Hönig, Cornelia Müller

© Erica Overmeer

© Erica Overmeer

© Brandlhuber+ Team

Bricking up a residual space

Joachimstrasse 11A/12A (6,5m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team

Joachimstrasse 12B/12C (14m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team

Joachimstrasse 13B/14 (24m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team

Linienstrasse 97/98 (15m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team

Linienstrasse 196/197 (23m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team

Linienstrasse 199B/Joachimstrasse 12D (3,5m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team

Münzstrasse 22/24 (9m²) © Brandlhuber+ Team