Hansaviertel housing project

Late September, on a lovely, sunny saturday, Lower East went on a bike tour to Hansaviertel in Berlin. A very small district in the city.

The Hansaviertel was almost completely destroyed during World War 2 – after an urban planning competition was held in 1953, the Hansaviertel housing project was built between 1957 and 1961.

International master architects like Alvar Aalto, Walter Gropius, Oscar Niemeyer, Max Taut, Egon Eiermann – and the danish architects Arne Jacobsen and Kay Fisker were invited to design the complex.

In the Hansaviertel you find in all, 36 buildings, including family houses, apartment buildings, two churches, a kindergarten, a shopping center, a library, a theatre, and the U-bahn station Hansaplatz.

The whole ensemble is now protected as a historic monument.

Find your bike, maybe a sunny afternoon and go check out the very fine houses and buildings there.

NB: Lower East Lab / Lower East / Urban Safari do safari’s in Berlin, mainly around the topics of start up, inspiration, food, design and architecture.
Check it out here on the blog and on our website.

Urban Safari Berlin October 2015

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Gustav Hassenpflug. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Walter Gropius. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Walter Gropius. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Pierre Vago. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Jaenecke & Samuelson. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Jo van den Broek & Jacob Bakema. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Architect Walter Gropius. © photo Lower East

Hansaviertel Berlin. Overview. © photo Lower East

Urban Safari Berlin October 2015

Lower East Lab invites you on a urban safari in wonderful Berlin. In October. Could be cool if you want to join. Read all about it under the picture.

Need inspiration? Want to meet people, discuss good and new ideas?

Come join us on an intense 2day Urban Safari Berlin. We have on 21 and 22 October 2015 put together a journey for you in this urban jungle, with special focus on inspiring new business, creative spaces and the co-working scene.

Berlin is a very lively and a very inspiring city! It is a melting pot of start-ups, young (and older) entrepreneurs, fresh initiatives, inspiring atmospheres, cool exhibition venues, an innovative food scene and just amazing spots and corners.

Berlin is a perfect spot to explore, think of new ideas, rethink the old ones, wonder about how funny & crazy some projects can be – and simply enjoy the love for new, small and bigger beautiful things.

We have experienced, that just a couple of days in this city, can be a good solid boost of energy and a very welcome creative break from the daily routines.

The Urban Safari Berlin is a initiative of Lower East Lab Berlin. They organize and host the safari’s – the first one held in November ‘12, in April and May ‘13, and again in May ’14 and June ’15.

The deal is:
• We will start on wednesday morning October 21th at 10:00 in Lower East Lab in Kreuzberg, the lab will be our class room during the safari days.
• We will be a group of around 8-12 curious and interesting people like yourself.
• We will be safaring on bikes, and on foot, by U-bahn – and again on bikes, the most fun way to explore and stop and go again.
• We will have time to follow our noses, our instincts, enjoy the crème-de-la-crème of the Urban Safari and Lower East exploration so far in this town.
• In the lab we will share inspiration and inputs, we can listen and discuss – have time to reflect, to sketch, to laugh and to enjoy.
• We will be done by thursday October 22th at 18:00. Here we finish with a glass of ‘see you again’ wine.

Together with Camillos Kitchen, we will all put up a playful and inspiring dinner in the lab on the first night. Camillos Kitchen is a pop-up (mostly in Berlin, Copenhagen and Bern) restaurant with gorgeous food and remarkable wines. That alone is worth the journey.

After the safari, you will receive a rich visual documentation on your days in Berlin.
Are you ready for this adventure with us?

If, here comes the small-printed stuff:
• You sign up with an e-mail to Jørgen Smidstrup. First come, first serve.
• You book your own flight or travels to Berlin.
• You book your own overnight stays. We suggest you some beautiful places like Hüttenpalast, Michelberger or IMA Lofts. Or find a flat on Airbnb, we can get you in contact with fine private flats as well.
• Your costs will be €550 for the two days in the urban jungle. Guides, food and drinks for the time between the first day at 10:00 to the second day at 18:00, bike rentals, U-bahn tickets, and the class room and kitchen facilities are covered in this.
• Empty your head. Bring comfortable clothes and shoes, your favorite notebook, your best pens, some kind of a camera, and your toothbrush.

If curious, you can get some impressions from the lower east safari life on here on our blog and on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lowereastlab/timeline

If you like, you can of course invite a dear friend or your partner to enjoy the weekend with you after the safari in this mind-boggling city.
If the dates doesn’t fit you, special safaries can be arranged.

Feel free to contact us for any questions.

Jørgen Smidstrup, js@lowereast.dk
tel +45 40636899 // +49 170 2307910

Lower East Lab is a design studio, workshop room, event space, co-working space, homebase for Camillo’s Kitchen and Lower East. Behind the lab you find Helle Marietta and Jørgen Smidstrup who have moved their design company, Lower East, to Berlin at the end of 2011 and have been exploring the city ever since.

Helle and Jørgen will be your scouts, hosts and the facilitators for the Urban Safari.

You can find this text as a pdf on our website.

Urban Safari Berlin ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin visiting Kühlhaus Berlin, May 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin – in the Lower East Lab, June 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin ©lowereast

 

Druck Berlin festival 2015

A few impressions from Lower East’ visit at the Druck Berlin festival this weekend. Very fine exhibition.
Druck Berlin festival is organised by the cool lady Dolly Demoratti, who also runs Berlin-based silk screen company, Mother Drucker.

More info:
druck festival
mother drucker

Druck Berlin festival ©lowereast

Druck Berlin festival ©lowereast

Druck Berlin festival ©lowereast

Druck Berlin festival ©lowereast

Druck Berlin festival ©lowereast

Sebastião Salgado at C/O-Berlin

For a very few days, actually just until Sunday August 16th, the exhibition Genesis by Sebastião Salgado is on show at C/O-Berlin in Amerika Haus.

Lower East visited the fantastic, stunning, thoughtful – and totally overwhelming photo exhibition.

From the C/O-Berlin webpage: Genesis is a visual homage to the blue planet. In opulent black-and-white photographs, the photographer Sebastião Salgado documents the stunning beauty and rich diversity of intact flora and fauna, as well as indigene peoples. His aesthetically impressive, large format photographic series is the result of an expedition lasting several years, with the goal of heightening people’s awareness for the preciousness of the last untouched corners of the earth. The Genesis project is Sebastião Salgado’s appeal to civilization to preserve part of the planet in all its original and fascinating diversity.

More info at www.co-berlin.org

Go there if you can!

C/O-Berlin, Amerika Haus ©lowereast

C/O-Berlin, Amerika Haus ©lowereast

C/O-Berlin, Amerika Haus ©lowereast

C/O-Berlin, Amerika Haus ©lowereast

C/O-Berlin, Amerika Haus ©lowereast

C/O-Berlin, Amerika Haus ©lowereast

New website: Kühlhaus Berlin

Frontpage Kühlhaus Berlin website

Yesterday we launched the new website for Kühlhaus Berlin – the coolest house in Berlin 😉
After a short and intense design period the site is ready.
We are very happy with the result, so are the client! Design by us, programming by Ricoland.

Kühlhause Berlin is a space for art, concerts and events – seven floors with a variety of exceptional facilities and possibilities, with a total of about 5000 square meters.

Later on we launch the English version, for now check out the German version >

The Kühlhaus Berlin website, design by Lower East

The Kühlhaus Berlin website, design by Lower East

The Kühlhaus Berlin website, design by Lower East

The Kühlhaus Berlin website, design by Lower East

What’s going on in the lab?

Urban Safari Berlin – in the Lower East Lab, June 2015 ©lowereast

What’s going on in the Lower East Lab? These mid of July days are somehow calm. We are still working on 3-4 graphic design projects and trying to finish stuff by the end of the week – and we are getting closer and closer to a long-awaited holiday break.

We are really, really happy with our lab here in Berlin! The last 2-3 months we have had so many sweet, cool, funny, talented, interesting and interested people in the lab, for many different reasons and purposes. Thanks for that!

Just to mention some of the arrangements and events that has happened in the Lower East Lab:
• in May we had 15 architects from the Danish company, Mejeriet, on an Urban Safari – cruising Berlin on bikes with us, getting inspired and checking out “transformations“ in this wonderful city. The group of architects finished the evening, co-creating with us a delicious dinner, Camillo’s Paladar, in the lab.
• also in May we arranged a day-long Food Safari, for a group of (around 20) students, studying global nutrition and health at the Copenhagen-based school Metropol. After a introduction in the lab, we met with people, checked out new and inspiring food projects, visited food markets and tested delicious stuff ’unterwegs’. All day on bikes, daring to end the day with a tasting of german white wines…
• later in May we had an even larger group in the lab, attending Hack the City to discuss THE FUTURE OF WORK. The workshop was arranged by the Swedish city of Sundbyberg and was facilitated by the Stockholm-and-Malmö based innovation company Shuhuu.
• we have our monthly dinner in the lab; Camillo’s Cafeteria, where up to 20 people from the Berlin ’international scene’ show up, meet, talk, eat and drink a glass of wine (or two). We will be back with the cafeterias from August on. We also held three successful Camillo’s Chef’s Table, private dinnners in the lab during the spring.
• we managed to include a gastro teambuilding in the program; a group of 9 leaders from a pension fund showed up in the lab and under guidance from Chef Camillo, the group created a three course lunch dinner with three house favorites; potato-rosemary pizza, white asparagus and a asparagus-leeks-parmesan risotto. The process and teambuilding went very well. The food was delicious and the atmosphere fantastic.
• in June, a group of KaosPilot students from Switzerland joined our two day Urban Safari Berlin. On bikes, we checked out the inspiring start-up scene in the city, met and talked with creative and lively people. During the safari days the lab worked as a ’class room’ for sharing and reflecting. The safari turned out as planned and was very succesful. We are really happy with our urban safari concept!
• besides all this, we have managed to do a lot of good work during spring with our main ’thing’; the graphic design and communication. With great help from two trainees, Casper from Denmark and Amanda from Sweden, we, among other things, designed a book for Glasmuseum Ebeltoft, a brand new website for another art client – Hempel Glasmuseum, a visual identity for a swiss consultant, a series of posters for the KaosPilots Switzerland, a new website for a Berlin client – a big old factory which has developed into a cultural art and event space, one for a Swiss client and right now deeply in the design process with a new book for a Danish client, the book will come out this autumn.

Have a fantastic summer out there!

Impressions from the lab life:

Hack the city – in Lower East Lab, May 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin, May 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin, May 2015 ©lowereast

Gastro teambuilding in Lower East Lab, may 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin & Camillo’s Paladar in the Lower East Lab, May 2015 ©lowereast

Food Safari in the Lower East Lab, May 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin in the Lower East Lab, May 2015 ©lowereast

Urban Safari Berlin visiting Kühlhaus Berlin, May 2015 ©lowereast

On tour with Borups Højskole, May 2015 ©lowereast

On tour with Borups Højskole, May 2015 ©lowereast

Gas station in Kreuzberg

Passed this old gas station and these old garages in a backyard in Muskauer Strasse, Berlin Kreuzberg. Very cool place.

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Garages Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Garages Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Gas station Muskauerstrasse Kreuzberg Berlin ©lowereast

Lapidarium

Right now at Brandenburg Tor in Berlin, you will find Gustavo Aceves’s traveling exhibition “Lapidarium“. The exhibition marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the second World War.

Just in front of the gate – and the four bronze horses already standing on top of the gate for more than 200 years – you will find 20 very big and very heavy horses, made of cast iron, marble, bronze and granite. After leaving Berlin already on May 10, the exhibition will travel to further landmarks around the world between 2015 and 2017.

Lower East crossed the fascinating exhibition, and came home with these photos.

You can find more information about “Lapidarium“ in this article from The Guardian and this notice here from Artnet.

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Lapidarium ©lowereast

Brandenburger Tor ©lowereast

Food Safari Berlin 2015

Lower East, Lower East Lab, Urban Safari Berlin and Camillo’s Kitchen presents: Food Safari Berlin.
[Text, both in english and danish]

Chefs table ©lowereast

 

Berlin er en vidunderlig, pulserende og stemningsfyldt storby! Det perfekte spot at tjekke ud og dykke ned i, hvis du ønsker at blive inspireret, få nye idéer og undersøge nye business-muligheder.

Byen byder på kreative iværksættere, inspirerende miljøer, cool udstillingssteder, en vild og omskiftelig historie – og i disse år en meget levende og ‘street’ madscene.

I denne skønne storbyjungle inviterer vi på en intens to-dages FOOD SAFARI BERLIN.

Her introducerer vi dig for kreative spisesteder og opfindsomme restauratører, hvis koncepter forener gourmet med kant. Vi besøger og undersøger bugnende madmarkeder, med masser af økologi og masser af lokale varer. Vi taler med passionerede og succesrige mad-vin-kaffe-folk og hører deres historier. Vi tjekker fede locations og berlinske indretningsidéer ud.

Vi åbner døre man normalt ikke finder, i baggårde man som regel ikke bevæger sig ind i – og smager selvfølgelig på alle de fundne skatte på vores vej.

FOOD SAFARI BERLIN 2015:
#1: Torsdag og fredag 16-17 april.
#2: Slutningen af august / eller midt september.
Forslag til andre datoer modtages gerne, vi arrangerer med glæde en special-safari.
Find mere info via dette link til vores hjemmeside.

——-

Berlin is a wonderful, vibrant and evocative metropole! A perfect spot to explore if you want to get some fresh inspiration, think of (old and) new ideas, and to check out for new business possibilities.

The city is right now a melting pot of start-ups, ­entrepreneurs, fresh ­ideas, inspiring atmospheres, cool exhibition ­venues, an innovative and ‘street’ food scene and just amazing corners. In this lovely city jungle we invite you for an intense 2day FOOD SAFARI BERLIN.

Here we will introduce you to creative restaurants and innovative restaurant owners. We will visit and study food markets, with lots of organic and local goods. We will meet passionated and successful food-wine-coffee people and hear their stories. We will check out cool locations and seek for inspiring typical Berlin interior ideas.

We will open doors you normally don’t find, in back yards you normally don’t go – and will of course taste the treasures we find on our way.

Food Safari Berlin 2015
#1: Thursday and Friday, April 16th and 17th.
#2: End of August or mid of September
You are very welcome to suggest your favorite dates – we will be happy to arrange a special safari for you.
Find more info at our website (parts of it in Danish – let us know if your want help with understanding the stuff).

Zucchini flower ©lowereast

Supalife Kiosk

Up there in Raumerstrasse in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, you find a damn fine kiosk, the Supalife Kiosk. An inspiring gallery filled with cool screen prints, graphic art and illustrations. You find a delicate selection of books too, and you can attend beginners workshops in screen printing, woodcut printing and a lot more (if you ask). The kiosk is the base for the Supalife artists.

Worth a visit! They do have an online shop too, if you don’t want to climb the mountain…
supalife kiosk

Pictures from Supalife Kiosk ©lowereast

Pictures from Supalife Kiosk ©lowereast

Pictures from Supalife Kiosk ©lowereast

Pictures from Supalife Kiosk ©lowereast

Postcard by the fab Danny Gretscher

Postcard by the fab Danny Gretscher