mittendrin... the moritzplatzsqare is situated in the berlin borrough of kreuzberg. the boundary to the borrough of mitte passes at the north end of the sqare and was sconstituted by the berlin wall until 10 years ago. the sqare stretches as an empty field between the adjacent urban structures: fin de siecle boomtown, wasteland and postwar late-modernist housing estates. all these structures seem to turn their backs to the square and enhance the impression of emptyness. this urban void is the starting point of our thinking on moritzplatz.

special places they are everywhere around town: those special places. the big sqares, the motorway x-links, tha local high roads, pocket parks, parking lots and dark holes. places sticking out of the urban blur by their distinct qualities, silent lighthouses of our love to that ominous construct berlin. forming the hinge between the south and the center of berlin, moritzplatz is destined to be one of those special places. or it is one - only without the people.

gro§-moritzplatz we define the moritzplatz sqare as the negative urban space stretching continiously from the center of the original square. the thereby defined space is larger than the one marked by the roads. the spatial boundaries of moritzplatz as defined by 19th century landscape architect peter lenee, are widened by war destruction, demolition and partial rebuilding. today moritzplatz is very much dominated by horizontal uses. plot geometry separates the random uses from one another, materialised in the form of fences, channeling all movements. the new moritzplatz begins on the old one. today the center of of the roundabout, it continues across the traffic lanes, the deserted plots, hits the back of other streetsÕ buildings, folds and runs up their walls. this moritzplatz is a very big empty urban space in the center of berlin. ignoredof the adjacent urban structures it remains left un-usable. our aproach takes this situation on as Ôthe existing, as the basis and starting point of all interventions. at the same time we are intrigued by the concept of a public space.

action we reinvent moritzplatz. life is injected by the formula: void = 1. in three alternative scenarios the moritzplatz is given back to the berliners as a commen space of action. giving the moritzplatz a new urban and public surface, all scenarios make it accessible. they are called: st.motitz, spielfeld (playing field) and innercityforestliving.

st. moritz teleports moritzplatz into 3D. itÕs name is therefore derived from a alpine ski resort. undergroud passengers find themselves leaving the tunnels and tubes onto a thick and soft moutain lawn. they become Ôpoint de vueÕ of oranien- and heinrich-heine-stra§e. moritzplatz is projected onto oranienplatz sqare, between the housing blocks and late modernist estates to the north, into the backyards along prinzenstra§e. spontanious territorial inhabitations, such as bbq, jogging, sex, bronzing, chess, rollerscating, contact, eat sausage. the physical realisation of the mountain is easy, as the needed 420.00 cubic meters of matter lie in the buried luisenstadt channel.

spielfeld varies the space of the sqare. it remains soft and resistent to planning. ephemeral in itÕs resemblance and use, it is seen differently every day. spielfeld as the drawn forum generates ephemeral spaces, develops the location of moritzplatz as starting point for renewal and perspective. the surface of gro§-moritzplatz including the horizontal as well as the vertical existing surfaces is to be covered with one single artificial layer of info-containing asphalt. the patterns on ground an walls engrave all kinds of uses into moritzplatz, giving humans the points of reference needed for spatial action. the existing void is seemingly preserved, the lines in the ground projected into space through the human bodies moving on and using moritzplatz.

innercityforestliving makes moritzplatz green, makes moritzplatz dark., fills the void primarily with one: the woods. it is the insertion of a simple but unexpected sensorial condition. the hard road gets folowed for a short episode by softly ondulating forest paths, the thick and humid air of the shrubbery blows through the lowered car window, light cascades in myrriads of little dots onto the ground. waterdrops slide from needle to needle, from leaf to leaf. innercityforestliving is to be read as the antipode to contemporary anti-sensuality in public space. in this island of woods old housing typologies might be reinvented and adapted to generaty the berlin-baumhaus. arranged in clusters around their common stairs, the live-in boxes on their long sleek legs nestle into the treetops.