Scandinavia in Berlin and Alvar Aalto in Wolfsburg

The day starts at 10 am with a visit to the Nordic Embassies building in Berlin. The embassies of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland are arranged geographically in the Felleshus (Pan Nordic Building). The building is designed by Alfred Berger and Tiina Parkkinen.

The day continues with a visit to the Hansaviertel residential area in West Berlin, which was built for the 1957 Interbau Building Exhibition. One of the highlights of the day will be a visit into one of the Alvar Aalto apartments at the “Haus 16” building. During the day, the group will get to explore other interesting buildings too on the area, such as the Hansa library (Werner Düttmann), Atrium-Haus (Arne Jacobsen) and Schwedenhaus (Fritz Jaenecke und Sten Samuelson).

After the visit at Hansaviertel, lunch will be enjoyed at the Academy of Arts building (Günter Behnisch and Werner Durth) at 1.30 pm.

At 3.30 pm the tour will continue towards the Main station where the group will have a quick coffee break.

Tour continues towards exploring the architecture and attractions on the Parliamentary District by the river Spree. We will get acquainted with architecture sites such as the Paul Löbe House and Elisabeth Lüders House by Stephan Braunfels, Crown Prince Bridge (Santiago Calatrava), Swiss Embassy (Diener und Diener), Chancellery (Schultes Frank architects), Metro-station Bundestag (Schultes Frank architects) and Reichstag (Lord Norman Foster).

The tour will continue over to Pariser Platz, where the history and urban development of the area will be discovered as well. Tour will include sights such as the Brandenburg Gate, French embassy (Chr. Portzamparc), Hotel Adlon (Patzschke, Klotz und Partner), U.S. Embassy (Moore Ruble Yudell) and DZ-Bank (Frank O. Gehry).

The day starts at the Hotel Scandic at 9:00 am. Together with the guide, we will take a closer look at the area around Potsdamer Platz, where we will get to explore the achievements of several different architects. The architecture of the area has been designed by architects such as Hilmer Sattler Albrecht, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Lauber und Wöhr, Arata Isozaki, Rafael Moneo, Helmut Jahn and David Chipperfield. Along the tour, we will explore buildings like the Sony Daimler and Beisheim building as well as the impressive Park Colonnades.

We will see Tilla Durieux Park (DS Landscape Architects) and take the metro from Potsdamer Platz station towards Alexanderplatz station, where our day will continue exploring the story of Alexanderplatz square as well as Karl-Marx-Allee street.

Lunch will be served at the Kaufhof Galeria at 12:30 pm.

After lunch, we continue the tour and pass the TV Tower, Red Town Hall and Berlin Dome on our way to the Museum Island, where we will explore the Altes Museum designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. We will also see the Alte Nationalgalerien, the James Simon Gallery, the Neues Museum, the Pergamonmuseum and the Bodemuseum.

After visiting the museum island, our journey continues by metro towards West Berlin, where we will get to know the story behind the Bikini-House building. The group also has the opportunity to visit the roof terrace on  the new part of the shopping center, which offers great views to the Berlin Zoo. We will also explore the area’s newest high-rise buildings the Upper West and Waldorf Astoria. On the roof terrace of Motel One on the Upper West building, the group will also have a chance to enjoy a bewerage and enjoy the view.

At the end of the day, we will also see the the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the famous KaDeWe department store in Berlin, where the group will also have the opportunity to stay longer and do some shopping. The last sight of the day is the Wittenbergplatz underground station (Alfred Grenander) through which the group can also conveniently return back to the hotel.

The last day starts with an early breakfast at the Scandic Berlin Potsdamer Platz hotel.

Tour guide will meet the group at 8:00 am and will lead the way to the Main Station to catch a train at 8:30 am to Wolfsburg. Travel time from Berlin to Wolfsburg is approximately an hour and we will reach Wolfsburg at 9:37 am. From the train station, we will walk to the Wolfsburg Cultural Center, designed by Alvar Aalto, arriving there by 10:00 am. During the visit the group will also get to explore the Architectural Forum Wolfsburg before the lunch break.

After lunch, tour continues by foot through Porschestraße street towards the Art Museum Wolfsburg (Schweger & Partner) and Theater Wolfsburg (Hans Scharoun).

The tour continues by bus and we visit the Wolfsburg Church and parish center and the Detmerode Church, designed by Alvar Aalto.

Returning back to Berlin at 6:30 pm train from Wolfsburg.