TANKE - Transformation of intercity gas stations in Berlin

Master Thesis 2021: TANKE - Transformation innerstädtischer Tankstellen in Berlin 

Project Partner: Anatol Rettberg

Mentor: Prof. Jan Kampshoff and Prof. Jörg Stollmann

We found sixty gas stations within the highway ring of Berlin.

Places of ritual, places for a short break, places of encounter where people from different social backgrounds cross paths, places of availability, places for a little snack, places for a short talk, places to get information, places that you can recognize by their special smell, places that float like little islands in the urban archipelago, places of coolness, places everyone can tell a story about, places of longing, places of wanderlust, places of nostalgia.

In a time when the petrol-driven car is losing more and more significance, we ask ourselves: What will happen to these places in the future?

We explored the network and the potentials of these places. In which urban context do they appear, how do they interact with their immediate surroundings, by which architectures are they surrounded, on which streets are they located?

And we ask ourselves, if one day the gas stations will become the new infrastructural and social points of our city Berlin?

Through a playful and speculative approach, we sought to make complex urban and architectural issues tangible while simultaneously questioning and expanding the traditional boundaries of architecture practice itself.