White City

The White City – since 2008, together with five other Berlin housing estates, a UNESCO World Heritage Site – is an outstanding example of modernist housing in Berlin. The open ribbon development, the cubic structures with flat roofs and gleaming white façades made the residential complex a symbol of Neues Bauen even as it was being constructed.
Architects Bruno Ahrends, Wilhelm Büning and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg designed the buildings; Salvisberg also drew up the overall urban plan. The Jewish garden architect Ludwig Lesser was responsible for the design of the open spaces (see sign on the median). Ahrend’s buildings along Aroser Allee form a smooth, unified front that culminates in two projecting tower buildings marking the southern end of the housing estate. The brick-framed entrances; blue loggias, stairwell windows and overhanging roofs; and ocher windows provide color contrasts. Ahrends also designed other housing in the estate (addresses above) and the kindergarten in the courtyard between Emmentalerstraße and Schillerring.