Jürgen Mayer Completes New Berlin Residential Building

J. Mayer H. has recently completed their new residential building, dubbed JOH3, in downtown Berlin. Located in Johannisstraße in Mitte near Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse, the building is characterized by an undulating striated facade that constitutes a vertical landscape of surface and shadow and which, according to the architect, hints at the gradated garden courtyard within. The design draws on the city’s typical housing typology, with an aggregation of units stacked to a modest height that surrounds an interior green court abutting the wall with the neighboring building. Following the same model, the ground floor has been sanctioned for commercial use, demarcated by the larger and more expressive voids in the slatted facade.
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/42851/jurgen-mayer-completes-new-berlin-residential-building/

The elevation’s whimsical organization is less haphazard and meandering as initially appears, its ostensibly arbitrary pattern underlying the variability of the apartments and breadth of housing options within. Each of the units corresponds to a different floor plan and sectional changes that yields a diverse collection of spaces. All the apartments are oriented along a southwest axis with views out to the city and inwardly towards the courtyard creating a visual link from the private to public realms. Penthouses and other larger units open onto the historic Friedrichstadt district, while condominiums are organized vertically in multi-story units, complete with private gardens.