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Scandinavia in Berlin and Wolfsburg

Location: Berlin, Wolfsburg, Germany

Duration: 3 days

Sites: Hansaviertel Apartment building “Haus 16”, Wolfsburg church (Heilig-Geist-Kirche) and the parish centre, Wolfsburg Cultural Center, Detmerode Church (Stephanuskirche) and parish centre

Persons: 15

Available: All year

Accommodation: Included

Transportation: Not included

Themes: Aalto homes, Civic centers, Cultural buildings, Modernism, Office buildings, Residential areas

From 999 € per person

Take part on a three-day tour, where you get to spend two days in Berlin and one in Wolfsburg. On this tour you can admire and get to know the architecture, landscapes and sights accompanied by an exclusive English-speaking guide.

Tour highlights:

  • Architectural Walking Tour in Berlin
  • The Hansaviertel residential area
  • Alvar Aalto’s influence in Wolfsburg

Take part on a three-day tour, where you get to spend two days in Berlin and one in Wolfsburg. On this tour you can admire and get to know the architecture, landscapes and sights accompanied by an exclusive English-speaking guide. During the tour, you will also get to experience a few interesting buildings that Alvar Aalto designed in Germany.

The tour begins by exploring Berlin, a city where there is definitely plenty to see and do. The first two days of the program provide an in-depth tour of the city’s interesting architecture and attractions. You will also get to enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the city and also do some shopping while you are at it. After taking over Berlin, the tour continues on a day trip towards the city of Wolfsburg, which has a lot to offer in particular for Aalto enthuastictics.

Alvar Aalto’s Hansaviertel residential building has a total of 78 apartments, most of which are 83-90m². Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation

Wolfsburg Cultural Centre is the home for the City Library and other cultural and business premises. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation

During the tour, you will also get to experience a few interesting buildings that Alvar Aalto designed in Germany.
Detmerode church main entrance
Main entrance to the Detmerode church opens onto to a shopping centre plaza. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation
Wolfsburg Cultural Centre
The atrium courtyard at the Wolfsburg Cultural Centre is one of the special features of the building. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation
The Wolfsburg church and the parish building
The Wolfsburg church and the parish building. Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Foundation

Programme by day

Day 1: Arrival to Berlin

The first day will start with a lecture to learn more about Berlin’s recent development, architecture and urban development, as well as hearing about the city’s Scandinavian influences.

Accommodation and dinner at the Scandic Berlin Potsdamer Platz. The hotel is located right in the heart of Potsdamer Platz within walking distance to many attractions, restaurants and shopping opportunities.

Useful information
  • Dinner at the Scandic Berlin Potsdamer Platz hotel at groups own expense

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.

Sites included in this trip

Hansaviertel Apartment building “Haus 16”

Berlin / 1954–1957

The Hansaviertel residential area in West Berlin was built for the 1957 Interbau Building Exhibition. After the devastation of World War II, the area was rebuilt following principles of international Architectural Modernism. 53 architects from 14 different countries were invited to the project, Alvar Aalto being one of them. In…

Wolfsburg Cultural Center

Wolfsburg / 1958–1962

Wolfsburg Cultural Centre was designed and constructed for a small German city built around automotive industry. In choosing Alvar Aalto as the designer, the young city of Wolfsburg wanted to acquire a higher profile. The building was designed to house the City Library, the Adult education centre and the Youth…

Information on this trip

Good to know

Arriving to Berlin and Wolfsburg

There are several flight connections from Helsinki, Finland to Berlin, Germany. The flight time is approximately 2 hours. Wolfsburg is located approximately 230 kilometres from Berlin and the travel time with a train from Berlin to Wolfsburg is approximately 1 hour.

 

Included

  • Price includes all tour programme, transport costs (except flights), accommodation, entrance fees to sites in Berlin and Wolfsburg

Excluded

  • Meals and drinks
  • Flights from Finland to Germany (Berlin) and back to Finland

Example price 999 € per person

  • The starting price of the tour per person is calculated for 15 participants
  • The availability of services and prices are verified at the time of booking, and they depend on the time of travel. The programme is provisional and can be modified according to customers’ suggestions. All information is subject to change
  • All rights reserved

Inquiries and bookings

Example price 999 € per person

  • The starting price of the tour per person is calculated for 15 participants
  • The availability of services and prices are verified at the time of booking, and they depend on the time of travel. The programme is provisional and can be modified according to customers’ suggestions. All information is subject to change
  • All rights reserved
The build environment is TICKET B's passion. They convey the contemporary building scene and modern architecture of Berlin in an exciting and authentic way. Through their network of experts TICKET B provides a variety of guided tours, organized architectural travels, conferences and events and have published numerous publications.
TICKET B

Frankfurter Tor 1

10243, Berlin, Germany

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