FREE THE SPREE
First Semester | Third Year
Free the Spree was a competition entry for a mixed-use student housing program on a site beside the River Spree in Berlin, Germany.
I was particularly interested in the ecosystem of the river and found out that it was under attack by copius amounts of iron ochre from a mine beside an upstream area of the spreewald from the site.
My concept for this project was creating a built form that would harness the river water and transfer it through the different buildings and floating pavilions around the site which would clean it. As this process is flowing, the openness of the built form would allow Berliners to access the river and pavilions and thus the Spree becomes a part of the site. There are also a series of 'rain rooms' that activate quiet pockets of the site when it rains and aclimatise inhabitants to living with water instead of avoiding it.
Eventually the purification process will clean the Spree and Berliners can swim in the river and the river space can be utilized for different community functions.