Buy an apartment in Frei Otto’s experimental Ökohaus in Berlin

Photography: courtesy of Poetic Walls

In 1980s Germany, Frei Otto was a superstar of modern architecture, master of lightweight, sustainable structures that became cultural destinations. His most recognisable creations might have been the biomorphic tent roofs of the Munich Olympic Park, built in 1972 with membrane and cable-net constructions. His residential complex Ökohaus, completed in 1987 on a swath of land in Tiergarten, Berlin, was an experiment in utopian living that separated a permanent concrete framework from individually designed dwellings inserted within it.

Unit 3, now for sale with Poetic Walls (price on application), shares of one of Ökohaus’s structural bays and spans approximately 190sqm across two levels. The maisonette exhibits the handiwork not just of Otto but of master builder Arno Brandlhuber, currently Germany’s most influential and compelling architect.

Together with unprofessional.studio, Brandlhuber redesigned Otto’s interior, stripping it back to its underlying structure and exposing Otto’s concrete columns and the original timber frame. Terracotta floor tiles dating from 1987 remain in place; a patchwork of new tiles was sourced by Brandenburg is left distinguishable from the originals. New clay plaster walls were produced using material reclaimed during demolition works.

A staircase divides the open-plan ground floor, where a cantilevered kitchen island designed by Sam Chermayeff sits beneath exposed timber beams. Upstairs, a central wall helps distribute daylight through the plan, while silver-fir flooring and marble surfaces define the private rooms.

The apartment lies south of Tiergarten park, within walking distance of the Kulturforum, Neue Nationalgalerie and Bauhaus-Archiv.