{"id":257145,"date":"2025-11-02T07:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T07:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/257145\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T07:51:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T07:51:17","slug":"from-here-to-eternithaus-the-berlin-landmark-that-continues-to-inspire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/257145\/","title":{"rendered":"From here to Eternithaus \u2013 the Berlin landmark that continues to inspire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

On a sunny July day in 1957, crowds of politicians and citizens from West Berlin gathered around the Hansaplatz, an area next to the city\u2019s historic Tiergarten park. They had convened for the debut of the City of Tomorrow, an ambitious urban planning project to restore the extensively war-damaged, 60-acre neighbourhood. More than 50 renowned architects from 14 different countries had been asked to design edifices that were to present new forms of living; by the summer of\u00a01957 about 30 buildings had been erected. Completed by the early 1960s, the quarter remains a midcentury architectural showcase: among the most notable buildings are an eight-storey building designed by Alvar Aalto, a seven-storey Oscar Niemeyer apartment block, a \u201cvertical city\u201d with 527 apartments designed by Le Corbusier, bungalows conceived by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, and German architect Ludwig Lemmer\u2019s memorial church.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Eternithaus, built in 1957 by Paul Baumgarten, viewed from the back \u00a9 Robert Rieger<\/p>\n

But one of the most interesting and compelling solutions for future living in the neighbourhood was the Eternithaus<\/a>, designed by Berlin-based Paul Baumgarten. Instead of creating seven terraced houses, he imagined and\u00a0built\u00a0what he called a \u201cresidential ship\u201d with seven 1,000sq ft two-storey maisonettes topped with private rooftop terraces. The ground floor, designed to be a commercial space, was almost completely encased in glass, creating the illusion of a floating floor above the park.<\/p>\n

Initially the lower floor was used as a showroom for Eternit, a company manufacturing cement-building materials; the building was named after the brand as it had sponsored its cost and its bright red cursive font signage remains on the fa\u00e7ade. In the \u201980s, Eternit sold the building, and for the following two decades it was partially used as\u00a0offices. By the mid-2000s however, it was empty. Entrepreneur David Fuld would pass by on his commute every morning and imagine how fantastic it would be to base his hospitality company, Fuldwerk, there. In 2007, he\u00a0seized the chance to rent it. \u201cOnce I entered the ground\u00a0floor I was immediately taken by the space \u2013 the light, the openness,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was in awful shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA vintage lounge chair, found at Felix Bachmann Antiques, Berlin, in the Glass Block Room. The \u201960s sideboard is from Morentz in\u00a0the Netherlands \u00a9 Robert Rieger\"TheThe building arcade and original Eternithaus signage from the 1960s \u00a9 Robert Rieger\"DavidDavid Fuld and Sarah-Joan Fuld; the floorlamp is by Beltrami & Gencarelli \u00a9 Robert Rieger\"LolaLola Light by Gonzalez Haase AAS, produced by Analog Glass \u00a9 Robert Rieger<\/p>\n

David set up his offices on one side of the building, added a bar in the middle, fixed up the garden and restored the Glass Block Room \u2013 an 860sq ft space that he uses for meetings and workshops. Every time one of the flats above would come up for rent, he would attempt to buy or\u00a0lease it. \u201cI actually used the first apartment as a\u00a0guest room,\u201d he says of his first acquisition. \u201cIn the beginning I\u00a0wanted to take them over because sometimes the tenants would complain when we were working late or hanging out at the bar.\u201d Over the course of the past 15 years, he has managed to get his hands on three flats, two\u00a0of which he uses personally. \u201cI\u00a0moved into one in 2021 after my divorce and I use a second apartment for guests and my adult sons,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

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Over Christmas in 2022, David\u2019s sister Sarah-Joan Fuld, a design consultant who owns a Munich-based agency, came to visit. The 54-year-old has spent several decades conceiving creative work environments, including The Fuld, a mixed-use event and office space\u00a0in a townhouse in Munich; she is also the editor of a recently published book about workplace design, Where\u00a0Future Grows (Niggli<\/a>, \u20ac49.90).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GonzalezGonzalez Haase AAS\u2019s objects on display in the Glass Block Room for Berlin Art Week\u2019s Architecture Art Objects Colours, September 2025 \u00a9 Robert Rieger\"VintageVintage Arne Vodder extendable dining table, in the Glass Block Room \u00a9 Robert Rieger\"AA kitchen in one of the apartments on the second floor of the building \u00a9 Robert Rieger<\/p>\n

\u201cI came over at Christmas and told David that he just did not have the right furniture in the apartment,\u201d she says. \u201cWe then spent three fun days buying things \u2013 vintage rugs, original Eero Saarinen tables and Jean Prouv\u00e9 chairs\u00a0\u2013 at really special design resources in Berlin like Wildcarpets, the\u00a0antique dealer Felix Bachmann and Firma London.\u201d Later, she moved her attention to the Glass Block Room. \u201cIt had horrible furniture that hurt my eyes,\u201d\u00a0she says. \u201cI\u00a0said to David, \u2018Can we change it, please?\u2019\u201d Together they wandered through the vast warehouses of Morentz in the Netherlands, before extending the search to\u00a0Sweden\u00a0and Studio Schalling, where they picked up a\u00a021ft rosewood table. \u201cRestoring this building inspired a\u00a0great passion for\u00a0art and design,\u201d David says.<\/p>\n

\"AA light-filled living room in one of the apartments \u00a9 Robert Rieger<\/p>\n

By this point David\u2019s mission had changed. \u201cIt\u2019s such a special building; it was important not only to preserve it but open it up occasionally for others to enjoy,\u201d he says. The Glass Block Room is available for bookings by private companies, and the apartment for events and shoots. A visit with his sister to The Rope, a gallery for collectable design in Munich, at the start of this year sparked an art project and exhibition. Then this summer, the siblings approached Judith Haase of the experimental Berlin-based architecture studio Gonzalez Haase<\/a>, asking if she would like to create an intervention during Berlin\u2019s annual Art Week; she immediately said yes. \u201cThe first field trip I took as an architecture student in Berlin was to the Hansaviertel,\u201d says Haase. \u201cWe all stood in front of the Eternithaus and couldn\u2019t get in. No one opened the door because it was private.\u201d Berlin, she adds, \u201cis pioneering because it\u2019s a place where every space has been converted into an exhibition space. Presenting art in a glass cube \u2013 essentially a room without walls \u2013 is yet another example of how you can use architecture to create a dynamic context for art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Razavi<\/a><\/p>\n

Hundreds of people came to the exhibitions \u2013 as much to experience the Eternithaus as to take in the art. It is the\u00a0beginning of a new chapter for the building. \u201cOnce or twice a year we want to open the doors and do something that surprises us,\u201d says David. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to make money \u2013 we want to have fun.\u201d Next year the pair plan to invite artists or galleries from outside Germany to engage with Eternithaus. \u201cWe want to bring an international crowd here too,\u201d says Sarah-Joan. \u201cThis building, the neighbourhood and its architecture are all important archetypes, not just for Berlin but for other cities.\u201d More than a generation after it was conceived as part of the City\u00a0of Tomorrow, the Eternithaus still inspires.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-257145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}