Design Hotel
Lux 11
Berlin, Germany
Photo: arcspace
Lux 11 is located in Berlin's pulsating and hip central district of Mitte, only steps away from Alexanderplatz and the landmark Television Tower (“Fernsehturm”).
While “Lux” may evoke luxury, the moniker also refers to its location on Rosa Luxemburg Strasse, which is named after the historic German champion of socialist causes.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
The late 19th century building, originally a stately residential building, was used as office space under communism. Now, completely refurbished, it reflects the movement and innovation of Berlin's most vibrant area, a neighbourhood that has become one of Europe's most dynamic.
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
The interior of Lux 11 plays with opposites: warm and cold, smooth and rough; concrete in China green, a gentle colour, and warm wood. This light, minimalist colour scheme provides a cool, modern ambience as soon as you enter the lobby area.
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
Photo: arcspace
From the lobby there is direct access to the Shiro i Shiro Asian fusion restaurant with its famous Berlin chef Duc Ngo, and to the Aveda spa where you can Indulge yourself in a wide array of treatments.
Photo: arcspace
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
Three staircases winding around old-fashioned elevators lead to a series of rooms all in cool shades of pale green, with smooth blonde-wood details.
While the open floor plans provide a spacial flow for guests to move around they also create a certain, very private, intimacy.
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
Photo courtesy Die Photodesigner
Lux 11 is also a place for extended stays as all 72 apartments, ranging in sizes from 25 to 55 square meters, feature sleek white kitchen units fully equipped with microwaves, dishwashers, refrigerators, even washers and dryers.
Like the ever changing sides of the new Berlin, the hotel mixes history with modernity, melds energetic chic with sublime relaxation.
Lux 11 is cool in every sense of the word ....the place to stay for an authentic Berlin experience.
Completed 2005
Architect: Guiliana Salmaso (Silvestrin/Salmaso, London)
Interior Designer: Goetz Maximilian Keller (MK Architects, Berlin)
Lux 11 website
Staying at Lux 11 you are in walking distance to both new and old Berlin; from magnificent buildings dating back to Kaiser Wilhelm to the latest examples of modern architecture.
Just down the street on Rosa Luxemburg Platz, among several buildings from the first half of the 20th century, you will find the Volksbühne (People's Theatre) designed around 1913 by Oskar Kaufmann.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
On your way you pass Susuru restaurant that serves the Japanese esteemed Udon noodle. This is the first designer restaurant where one may officially slurp.....is obligated to slurp:)
Healthy, fast, and stylish, with a Gehry Cloud lamp in the ceiling.
Photo courtesy susuru
Photo courtesy susuru
Continue to Hackeschen Höfe, a lively Jugendstil complex, where you will find the Aedes gallery and café. Aedes is one of the most successful institutions for communicating architectural culture, urban design and similar topics.
Photo: arcspace
Behind Aedes, in Courtyard III is the A trans Pavilion, a forum for international artists, architects, landscape architects, designers and scientists.
We just missed the first installation “Gropius spaziert” (Gropius goes for a stroll) featured in the framework of the new series An intimac(it)y.
Photo: arcspace
Walk from there to the Schinkel's Schlossbrücke (1824) passing the former Palace of the Republic, built in 1976 under the communist regime, now under renovation.
Cross the bridge to Unter den Linden and Schinkel’s many buildings, among them the Royal Guardhouse (1816), the "Alte" Museum (1830) on Museum Island and, if you are a Karl Friedrich Schinkel lover, visit the Schinkel Museum in the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche, a red brick church designed by Schinkel himself.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
The Royal Guardhouse (1816)
Turn the corner by the Royal Guardhouse and you will find the new extension to the German Historic Museum by Architects Leoh Ming Pei with Eller + Eller.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
Museum Island, a unique ensemble of buildings that has evolved over time, is currently a major construction site with the grounds around the Neues Museum blocked off.
David Chipperfield is restoring the Neues Museum, the third of five museums to be renovated, that was left to decay after suffering bomb damage in World War II. The architect Oswald Mathias Ungers, who died in 2007, won the 2000 competition to restore the Pergamon, the last museum to be restored.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
The museums will be linked by a pedestrian tunnel and Chipperfield is designing an entrance building to accommodate shops and other tourist facilities.
The completion date for Museum Island is 2015.
Walk a little further along Unter den Linden and turn down Friedrichstrasse, towards Checkpoint Charlie, and you will find buildings by Jean Nouvel, Philip Johnson, Aldo Rossi, Josef Paul Kleihues, Rem Koolhaas, Oswalt Mathias Ungers, and many more ...
Turn back to Unter den Linden, and walk towards the Brandenburg Gate, passing by the Guggenheim Berlin by Richard Gluckman, the British Embassy by Michael Wilford and,on Pariser Platz, the DZ Bank by Frank Gehry, the French Embassy by Christian de Portzamparc, and the construction site of the American Embassy by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects.
Continue passing two buildings by Josef Paul Kleihues to the Reichtag by Norman Foster and the Field of Stelae by Peter Eisenman, consisting of 2,752 stelae in dark concrete, varying in height and inclination.
Photo: arcspace
British Embassy
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French Embassy
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American Embassy
Photo: arcspace
American Embassy
Personally I never miss going by two of my old favorite Berlin buildings next to Potzdammerplatz.
The New National Gallery, a two-part steel and glass structure, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the Philharmonic, a masterpiece of sculptural, expressionistic modernism, by Hans Scharoun.
The Philharmonic was the first of a series of buildings which would create a Kulturforum, later to include the New National Gallery, in an area of Berlin leveled during World War II.
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
Photo: arcspace
Potzdamerplatz seen from Philharmonic terrace
On the way back to the hotel stop by the Netherlands Embassy by OMA, just behind Alexanderplatz.
Photo: arcspace
This should keep you busy for a couple of days and it is only a fraction of buildings to see in Berlin.
Christian Richters Berlin photos
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March 17, 2008