Materiality and Color of the "Berlin Modernism Housing Estates"

Berlin, Gartenstadt Falkenberg, House Gartenstadtweg 50. a) Historic black and white photo (1915 - 18, source: Taut 1918); b) before restoration (1991); c) after restoration (2002). (Photographs b and c: Brenne Architekten

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites, ‘Berlin Modernism Housing Estates,’ built in the 1920s, have undergone several phases of restorations. Yet, fundamental research into investigation methods for original construction techniques, color schemes, and paint systems is lacking. The Technical University of Munich and Dresden University of Fine Arts, are conducting jointly an interdisciplinary research project from 2023 to 2026, uniting architects, art historians, conservators/restorers, and heritage scientists. This initiative provides a reassessment of previous approaches. Beyond preserving historic techniques and materials it aims at a fundamental work for managing 20th-century housing estates, within the framework of conservation and restoration history and theory of World Heritage Sites. The primary focus of this project is to compile the history of maintenance and restoration of Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, shifting the focus from reconstruction to preservation. The overarching goal is a critical evaluation of conservation-restoration and material science methods, emphasizing micro-invasive and non-invasive analytical techniques. For this purpose, material analyses are performed on site as well as on existing material samples from the "Materialprobenarchiv Brenne Architekten", kept since May 2022 in the “Baukunstarchiv” of the Berlin Academy of Arts. It is planned to extend such studies to as many buildings of the UNESCO Word Heritage sites in Berlin as possible. Finally, the research shall result in a well-defined set of guidelines for historically accurate and scientifically robust restoration, and materially appropriate reconstructions, respectively.

a) During demolition of the former extension (2000); b) the first colored plaster became visible; c) sample of first painted plaster. (Photographs a and b: Brenne Architekten; c) Hainbach)

Cross section of painted plaster sample, microscopic image under visible light showing the areas where analyses were performed

Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Laufzeit: März 2023 – März 2026

Head

• Prof. Dr. phil. dott. Thomas Danzl (TUM)
• Prof. Dr. Christoph Herm (HfBK Dresden)

Project collaborators:

• Dipl. Rest. Jana Hainbach (TUM)
• M.S. Zeynep Alp (HfBK Dresden)

Cooperation Partners:

• Akademie der Künste Berlin
• Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
• Architekturbüro Brenne Architekten

Further information: arc.ed.tum.de/rkk/forschung/siedlungen-der-berliner-moderne/