Nursery Kulturforum Berlin

The Kulturforum tree nursery was inaugurated in June. The temporary installation by Alterier le balto transforms the stony open spaces of the Kulturforum Berlin into green oases. Numerous events accompany the intervention. Find out more here.

“Late in the evening, the birds sit on the new trees, hold meetings and give concerts,” says Marc Pouzol from Atelier le balto, describing the scenery in the tree nursery in the Kulturforum piazetta. It is an atmosphere that until recently could not be clearly attributed to the location. The area in Berlin’s Mitte district between Landwehrkanal, Grosser Tiergarten and Potsdamer Platz is home to renowned museums and event venues. These include the New National Gallery, the Museum of Decorative Arts and the Picture Gallery, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic and St. Matthew’s Church. Despite these important institutions, the Kulturforum is considered a negative example of modernist urban development. Among other things, the fragmentation of the area by the road layout and the imposing but monofunctional buildings prevent a coherent spatial whole. An urban landscape, as once envisioned by the architect Hans Scharoun, is only partially perceptible.

Furthermore, large, sealed surfaces such as the Piazzetta are a cause for concern in the face of the climate crisis. The STEIN design without shade-giving trees or other urban climate-regulating vegetation is anything but contemporary. It is true that structural measures in the open space and the design for the Museum of the 20th Century will remedy this in the future. But it will be some time before that happens. Reason enough to initiate a project to green the area in the here and now.

Since July 2023, under the artistic direction of Nationalgalerie Director Klaus Biesenbach and atelier le balto, the artistic and horticultural installation Baumschule Kulturforum has been under construction. The project was realized with the help of the St. Matthäus Foundation and in cooperation with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Neue Nationalgalerie. The basic idea is to create green islands of young tree groves to enhance the stone open space. To this end, Atelier le balto installed mobile planters with 21 heat-resistant species. Under the canopy of bladder ash, string trees, gleditschia and others, new places to spend time are created. The small grove is complemented by wooden seating furniture. In this way, the once unattractive place can be experienced in a new way.

The Kulturforum tree nursery will start with around 80 trees and a pergola covering around 250 square meters in front of Café Estrade on the Piazzetta. The project will continue to grow over the summer. A total of 200 trees are to be installed in the coming weeks. Then not only on the Piazzetta, but also on the grassy traffic circle in front of St. Matthew’s Church and finally on Scharounplatz. The three tree islands will then remain on the Kulturforum until the end of 2024. The temporary redesign will be accompanied by a rich program of events. The Kulturforum tree nursery is not only intended to improve the quality of the space. Rather, the initiators want to encourage people to think about the transformation of urban spaces in times of climate change. “This temporary project is intended to mark the beginning of permanent greening and active site development,” says Andrea Zietzschmann, Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation.

Atelier le balto seems to be the right office for this task. The work of Véronique Fauceur and Marc Pouzol from le balto is characterized by the recognition, visualization and transformation of unnoticed urban spaces. Through temporary or permanent interventions, they have been able to transform places that have been neglected in the past into squares or gardens where people can gather and linger. It remains exciting to see how the Kulturforum tree nursery will be able to transform this important area in Berlin Mitte.

No greenery, but irrigation: a cloud of mist over Zurich’s Turbinenplatz cools the urban space – as an immediate measure. Read here how the square is to be cooled down in the medium term and how the “Alto Zürrus” pilot project works.