White City

• 

  Houses in the Weiße Stadt housing estate in the Berlin district of Reinickendorf.

• Houses in the Weiße Stadt housing estate in the Berlin district of Reinickendorf.

The White City housing estate in Berlin-Reinickendorf shines, whether winter or summer. Observers are impressed by the experimental design.

Berliners usually only know the Schillerpromenade housing estate as the Weiße Stadt (White City), because the white plastered walls of the large housing estate in Berlin Reinickendorf shine from afar.

White City as a world cultural heritage site

The large housing estate is typical of the 1920s and was built after the First World War to meet the housing shortage. Today, the Weiße Stadt is one of the six Berlin Modernist estates to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Housing estate with good infrastructure

The Swiss architect Otto Rudolf Salvisberg, together with the Berlin architects Bruno Ahrends and Wilhelm Büning, planned the estate with mainly small apartments. The White City was built between 1929 and 1931 and landscape architect Ludwig Lesser was hired to design the green spaces. The infrastructure was remarkably good for the time: a heating plant, communal laundry facilities, a medical center, a kindergarten and over 20 stores provided the residents with essentials.

Bridge House: Living above the street

The entire Schillerpromenade estate was clad in white plaster. As a contrast to the white design of the multi-storey houses, doors, windows and roof overhangs were painted in bright colors. Probably the most striking building on the Schillerpromenade estate is the multi-storey bridge house over Aroser Allee.

Information

• Address:
  Aroser Allee 169
  13407 Berlin
  City map
• Style and architects: Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), Bruno Ahrends, Wilhelm Büning and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg