Urania forecourt Berlin

The forecourt of the well-known Berlin event forum Urania was redesigned as an open space that serves as an extension of the foyer and can be used for events.

Narrow, shiny gold bands of aluminium bronze are embedded in a deep black, glittering coating of mastic asphalt. These intersecting, radial lines represent physical paths of movement, whose dimension or reference value, however, remains undetermined. The circular arcs refer to the building, leading to the entrance and from there out into the city.

The design is inspired by the video experiment Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, which spans an arc between astronomy and microscopy with zooms in powers of ten. Visually, a striking similarity emerges between the two final stages of observation: individual elements move on fixed trajectories in a vast, empty space.

With its precise, minimalist design, the draft picks up on the idea of these movements, deliberately leaving the question of dimension open and thus referring to the Urania's founding idea of looking at science from the large to the small.