BERLIN, POSSIBLY THE GREEN CAPITAL OF EUROPE, is rife with stellar examples of sustainable design and ‘green’ architecture. TGS students enjoyed a brief tour of just some of these sites given by NICHE Berlin, a group that boasts to “show you Berlin’s art and architecture off the beaten track”.

NICHE Berlin writes in their portfolio:

Berlin’s architectural landscape is unique. Its distinctive character was shaped especially in the last decades when the city went from being a beating heart of industrialization to the destroyed and rebuilt capital it is today. That process is still visible in abandoned sites and vacant spaces. The creative re-contextualisation of these structures leads to an astonishing and intelligent mix of architecture, triggered also by the city’s constant lack of liquidity, which requires inventive, cost- effective solutions and unconventional techniques. This permanent transition makes the capital’s urban layout so distinctive.

Our students were able to see various examples of buildings utilizing innovative energy conservation techniques, a hot topic in this term’s science program. Green architecture is a blossoming industry that will soon become the norm in everyone’s host country, as sustainable development becomes less of a misused commercial label and more of an earnest way of living around the world.

Photography by Lindsay Clark.