In Europe, many residents consider apartments in historic buildings to be the most beautiful way to live. Their imaginative entrances, thoughtful floor plans, generous ceiling heights, and attention to detail are exemplary even today. When we conceived Haus Bellevue, prominently located between Unter den Linden and the Spree River, we wanted to combine the advantages of residing in a historic building with modern living comfort.

Designed by the architect Oswald Mathias Ungers, the building’s elegant brick façade with bays and wooden windows clearly expresses the character of a traditional residential building in the midst of a neighborhood characterized mostly by office buildings.

A spacious entrance foyer with a sitting area and a concierge desk welcomes residents and visitors. From there, two separate elevator banks are accessed, one in each half of the building. The elevators generally serve only two apartments per floor. The use of long corridors was kept to a minimum.

Floor-to-ceiling windows, high-quality materials, and floor plans that recall those of well-designed historical buildings define the character of the apartments. Many technical features add to residents’ comfort; they were designed following the principle that building services should work effectively but, as far as possible, unnoticeably.

The perception that a large construction budget was available to obtain this level of quality is mistaken, however. Haus Bellevue is the result of a rigorous planning and construction buyout process, which eliminated everything that was dispensable in order to create sufficient budget flexibility for those components which were essential in defining the building’s qualities.

Basics