Marazzi Engineering and architecture in Berlin.

1. Berlin, one big construction site.
2. Innovative projects: ceramic ventilated walls.
3. Ceramics of the past and present.
4. A historical tour through the streets of the metropolis.
5. Projects underway.
6. The infinite potential of ceramic systems.


1. Berlin, one big construction site
It is common knowledge that even today, Berlin is still a huge construction site. In addition to full-fledged "chunks" of the city that have been or are being rebuilt, almost always from the ground up, the centre of Berlin, like the fringes, contains other elements of more "everyday" architecture: the enormous project of redeveloping the eastern part of the city is perhaps one of the largest initiatives to be embarked on in a single city in the recent past.
This is a major undertaking, because it is often necessary to operate quickly while life goes on in and around the buildings under renovation, and to work on what already exists, often with problems regarding the quality of the materials that were used. All of this, while keeping a constant focus on preserving the image of a city that has undergone various phases of reconstruction after the war, at first following the "16 Principles of Urban Design" proclaimed in 1951, then the "Eight Principles of Architecture and Socialist Urban Planning in the G.D.R." after 1982; in December '89, Berlin found itself joining together and trying to amalgamate the two parts of a world that had taken different paths.
The existence of two different urban design plans for East and West Berlin, often based on conflicting goals and ideas, has made it necessary to adopt tools capable of unifying the new local context, as a fundamental issue in redeveloping parts of the city affected by severe urban decay.

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2. Innovative projects: ceramic ventilated walls.
This has led to the spread of cutting-edge technologies applied on a massive scale: technological innovations that crop up in architectural designs in the form of new materials or traditional materials with innovative possibilities, and techniques and procedures used in other sectors.
As regards external building facades, this is what is happening with ventilated wall technology, as an outer shell that uses an ancient material, but with a very modern appearance and features: ceramic.

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3. Ceramics of the past and present
Ceramic cladding is not a new phenomenon; for over a decade, large ceramic slabs on ventilated walls have been used to clad buildings of various kinds in many European and non-European countries, but perhaps never on the scale that the phenomenon has assumed in Germany, or more specifically, in Berlin. Ceramics is not an anonymous material; it adds colour and shape to the building that it clads. Innumerable buildings in Berlin are faced with ceramic slabs from Marazzi Engineering.

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4. A historical tour through the streets of the metropolis.
To understand to what degree, and in what way, ceramics is a key material in this renovation and restoration process, we can follow a famous historic path through Berlin, travelling along one of the main routes leading from the furthest eastern outskirts of the city into its very heart: at first named Alt-Friedrichsfelde, then Frankfurter Allee, and finally Karl Marx Allee, this 90-meter wide street, with six car lanes and tree-lined pedestrian and bicycle paths, leads all the way to Alexander Platz.
A visitor heading downtown along Alt-Friedrichsfelde cannot help but be struck by the enormous residential complex at no. 67-68: completely faced with porcelain stoneware slabs in the luminous shade called Dakota, in the 60x60 cm tile size (squared to 592x592 mm), this building appears even more monumental because it stands on a small hill that puts it above street level. An eye-catching sinusoidal curve runs up through the windowless portions of the immense structure, in a colour that fades from dark green to light green, skillfully animating the monolithic building. This decorative motif is made from ceramic slabs in the colours Tellurio and Uranio, also in the 592x592 mm size of the Enduro line, with the glaze applied to an incandescent body, and are also used under the windows to give the building a vertical thrust and make it appear more streamlined. On other walls of the building, the positioning of the glazed slabs becomes irregular, like splashes of colour that break out of the geometric scheme.
The same effect of grandeur but orderly restraint, with an almost austere monochrome look, is felt when one proceeds up Frankfurter Allee

The twenty-storey high towers on Frankfurter Allee.

and encounters the white group of twenty-storey high towers from street numbers 152 to 172.
These tower-shaped, majestic structures, standing isolated or in clusters, are clad in glazed frost-proof single-fired ceramic, also in the 592x592x11 mm tile size, in a colour called Trocadero. The only patches of colour are the balconies, with a single colour on each building, to differentiate them. The green lawns and trees around them keep this environment from becoming the warren of flats that it might appear, imparting a sense of practicality and efficiency.

Further along, the street changes its name to Karl Marx Allee, although from Strausberger Platz to Proskrauer Straße it used to be better known in the past as Stalin Allee, a street originally created to counterbalance Unter den Linden.
The architecture takes a class-conscious approach, inspired on the one hand by the desire to create "proletarian flats" after the Soviet model, and on the other by the historical tradition of architecture in Berlin (seven- to nine-storey buildings with landmarks formed by taller buildings of greater architectural importance). The stone facings that cover them, featuring complex designs, are already under restoration in many of these buildings; the neighbourhood is one big construction yard.
The stretch of Stalin Allee that extends from Strausberger Platz to Alexanderplatz, constructed after 1958 in accordance with the principles of the "Socialist residential complex", has a very different character, with prefabricated buildings arranged within the space in a fairly uneven way, without any sort of monumental emphasis. It is striking to think that they are next to the Haus des Lehrers, which has been a very important landmark in the political and cultural life of the city. These are very simple, geometric buildings, ten floor high, made of prefabricated panels covered in mortar, with small ceramic tiles and large joints connecting the panels, which are always in a state of decay.

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5. Projects underway.
In the restoration of these buildings - dozens, if not hundreds of which can be found in the surrounding streets and neighbourhoods - the choice was made to retain the previous look of the ceramic cladding by using small tiles, though now supported by ventilated wall technology with an exposed anchoring system.
Ventilated walls also offer the advantage of making it possible to work quickly and allow life to go on inside the building while the project is underway.
Once again, the material chosen here was porcelain stoneware in the colour "Dakota",

Various residential buildings, Karl Marx Allee no. 4-10; 5-11;
14-20; 19-25; 24-30; 37-43; 38-44; 47-51; 48-52
Project Managers: A. Schmittlein, Simac, G+H, A.S.

but in a special 285x380 mm tile size, perfectly squared with minimum tolerances to ensure that the many joints are perfectly aligned. The panel connectors are also made of ceramic, giving them an aesthetic value in the overall context of the building: "Fumo" colour porcelain stoneware was used in the 285 or 380 mm x 70 mm high tile sizes.
But the most characteristic features of these buildings are the bands at the top between the last floor and the roof: in some cases they are decorated with intertwining polychrome Greek frets, or colourful ovals, or other shapes running around the entire perimeter of the building. These designs have been restored by silkscreening the porcelain stoneware base - again "Dakota" 590x360 mm tile - and refiring it to reproduce the original colours and patterns. The enormous care that has gone into retaining the original appearance, and into restoring the window frames, doorways, and balconies, as well as the gardens and flowerbeds, demonstrate to what degree the municipal authorities are committed to preserving the image and ambience of these neighbourhoods.
But while the goal is always the same - to redevelop and restore areas while protecting their underlying image - the technological solutions for achieving it can be different. Small tiles on a ventilated wall require a very dense support structure; for this reason, on a street parallel to Karl Marx Allee, Mollstraße, from numbers 5 - 18,



In this building on Mollstraße,
joints were silkscreened onto large porcelain stoneware slabs
to give the impression of smaller tiles.

the problem was tackled and solved in a different way. The ventilated walls used in the restoration projects were clad in porcelain stoneware slabs of various dimensions, primarily 587x767 mm or 578x892 mm; these materials were cut from large standard slabs measuring 600x900 mm, and joints (thus the appearance of 285x379 mm tiles) were then silkscreened onto them. This way, with two large slabs side-by-side, the real joints next to the silkscreened ones trick the eye into perceiving a succession of normally jointed small tiles. The slabs are made of porcelain stoneware in the colour "Marina", and in this case as well, the panel connectors are made with porcelain stoneware strips in the colour "Maritaca".

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6. The infinite potential of ceramic systems.
These descriptions should give an idea of just how many projects using ceramics have been or are about to be carried out: one finds entire neighbourhoods where a building covered in 40x40 tile may be across the street from one clad in 60x60 tile, or another in 60x90 tile, or yet other sizes, larger or smaller. All of them give an image of purity and geometry, which needs not be simple, since it can be linear, curved, or quite animated. What is truly striking about ceramic tile is the incredible range of possibilities in terms of shades and finishes: matt or gloss, natural or polished, glazed or with full-body colour, it can come in solid colours or recreate the look of stones like granite and marble. Berlin has grasped this enormous potential and spurred a new expansion in the range of tile colours and sizes, using ceramics to refurbish innumerable buildings as a sign of both urban improvement, and preservation of historic values.

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