23 May 2009

Tutto Fascho I: Livin’ it up Berlin Style

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Sick Buildings ∕ Urban Environment

Sorry to kill the buzz…reading IW’s recent entries makes it plain to see how some time away from grey, blustery Berlin can really improve morale. All this great stuff about miscellanea, nature and weather and whatnot. I feel it, too, having landed just two days ago after a wonderful 3 weeks in my hometown: sunny, dry Santa Fe, NM (USA). Yes, the glass does look half-full again. But no matter, I have an insane backlog of Slab pics to work through, and some of it, most of it, is not pretty. So its kind of a back to the roots thing for this modest operation, I guess.

Dateline: Berlin, March 3rd, 2009.

This picture is of the backside of another one of those urban gated lifestyle communities in Berlin a la Choriner Höfe or the Fellini Residences or Belle Kolle. See for example IW’s exhaustive series Property Marketing Balls from last year. I’m quite sorry that I don’t actually the name of this one, but the street address for the main entrance is located at approximately Am Friedrcihshain 28. The picture itself was shot from the used car lot on its soft underbelly, Sherin Autohandel at Greifswalderstr. 7.

amfreidrichshain1
Blingin’ it.

I’m privy to the fact that a couple of members of the wildly successful Stuttgarter rap crew Die Fantastische Vier have hung up their shingles here. I guess this type of architecture is considered bling in Berlin. Grey and bling and fascho, the latter of which being a trend that’s undergoing quite a surprising revival around here right now…just a half step away from that perennial German favorite, the Bland Box. I’ll spare you the formal ananlysis of why this facade looks fascistic; I don’t feel I really need to because it just does.