Märkisches Viertel Gesobau

Orientation System

40,000 peo­ple, 17,000 apart­ments: the Märkische Quar­ter in Berlin places great de­mands on ori­en­ta­tion. The large hous­ing de­vel­op­ment was de­signed in the 1960s by na­tion­ally and in­ter­na­tion­ally recog­nised ar­chi­tects. Build­ings of the same con­struc­tion type bor­der onto sev­eral streets and are con­nected through large court­yards and parks. The owner, Gesobau, wanted an ori­en­ta­tion sys­tem that not only made it eas­ier for peo­ple to find their way but also, through sim­ple and friendly de­sign, en­hanced the im­age of the neigh­bour­hood and strength­ened the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the res­i­dents with their neigh­bour­hood. To­gether with the pro­duc­tion de­sign­ers Gries and von Kamptz, Moni­teurs de­vel­oped a fam­ily of signs and a colour street map of the area. Ground plans mark the walk­ways and the fa­cil­i­ties of the in­fra­struc­ture.

Märkische Quar­ter
Ori­en­ta­tion Sys­tem
Ex­te­rior

Berlin 2003

Client
Gesobau AG

Ar­chi­tec­ture
35 na­tional and in­ter­na­tional ar­chi­tects (1963)

Prod­uct de­sign
griesvonkamptz de­sign as­so­ci­ates

Area
320 ha 40,000 res­i­dents