Showing posts with label Neukölln. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neukölln. Show all posts

Saturday, 15 November 2014

Neukolln public gardens around the Körner

  A few months ago a friend mentioned that there was a nice clean park in Neukolln. Most parks in the former east are a bit wild and well used so the site of green grass without numerous beer bottle caps meant I would need to find this. I never got around to checking it out till early October.

  Now, there is a palace in Charlottenburg with a large wild garden called Schloss Charlottenburg. It used to be well kept and done up in the traditional style of each royal family's era. Once small section is currently done up in a very geometric style of royal gardens.

  In my opinion, this park in Neukolln is far more impressive than the Charlottenburg Palace park. Built between 1912 and 1914, Körner Park is a sunken garden with a water fall, fountain and at the far end, an Orangery containing an art gallery with cafe. All this in a lower income neighbourhood more know for kebabs and underground bars and clubs. Somehow funding for this park is quite obviously in place, whereas the typical park here is a far cry from this level of maintenance.

Feels a bit like a Parisian park.


A park with enough elevation to have a waterfall, a rare sight indeed.

Gallery and cafe



Apparently the former owner of a gravel pit on the site handed it over to the local city government to be converted into a park (provided it bear his name). Thus the reason for the sunken nature of this park. It was very run down after WWII but in the 1970's was restored and in 1983 the Orangery was reopened. As of 2004, its a listed heritage site.

  On a warm day its got a crowd but not nothing like as busy as Mauer or Gorlitzer parks. A good spot to relax, people watch, sketch, read and plan a lazy day over a coffee.

Cheers
Andy

Sunday, 6 January 2013

48 hour Stunden Neukolln

In Berlin in mid June there are a large number of artists who participate in the 48 hour Stunden Neukolln. The area called Neukolln is the hub of the creative centre of Berlin and has a large number of ateliers/studios. For 2 days these studios are open to the public to visit and see each artists work. There were way too many to see in two days so I'm sure I'll find all new work next year. A stand out among the crowd this year was Invalid Robot Factory. This is a collective of finish artists who take discarded materials and create sculptures. The "invalid robots" with walkers were quite well done and did many laps of the main room. Some very fine wood carving skills and mechanical abilities:



Life size wooden sculpture with great detail.

All discarded tree stumps and branches.

 Well worth a visit to their studio to check out the latest in Finnish creativity and make sure to check out the site for the Stunden Neukölln weekend this year.
-Andy