I’m a photographer from Brazil, based in Berlin. I’m attached to this city since 5 years and I have been trying it out from top to bottom, from inside out. Here are some of my personal highlights.
A place where I spend some time almost everyday is the Marheineke Markthalle on Bergmannstraße in Kreuzberg. It's just around the corner from where I live and a great place to buy fresh food and products from local farmers or all kinds of delicatessen from different countries. Many market stalls also sell freshly prepared food and it's always busy at lunchtime. For saturday mornings try the original french croissants.
Floating University Berlin is a self organized space and group, where practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds meet to collaborate, co-create and imaginatively work towards futures.
It defines itself as “A Natureculture learning site” investigating alternative narratives for urban development.
I am totally in love with this place!!!
A very close friend of mine owns this bar. It looks tiny from the outside, but it has two rooms you have to pass until you get to last one which is a discofloor. I play music there from time to time and I am always surrounded by nice people und friends.
This cinema is nothing special if you're looking for that comercial combo big screens + major sound system, but it has its own sidewalk charm and decadent glam. Also it makes a good option for a date. You have plenty to choose for dinner and drinks all around Kottbusser Tor.
A green oasis wedged between the continuous blocks of apartments, this Cemetery provides a place to be alone or take sleeping kids. I love how from the front it looks slightly macabre and a rigid with it's iron gate. But if you dare to enter its a fantastic place to escape and think.
There's a battle going on locally about adding a building inside the ground to help fund the archive and maintenance of the site. The Chair Anke Reuther feels the park is being disrespected with children playing on the headstones and people using it as a place for picnics.
Whilst i don't know the in's and out's I love seeing this beautiful 'life cycle' playing out under the trees (which have probably seen it all before). I love that people use a cemetery for living and in our ever crowded cities a green space is being claimed by the community. I do feel there is a hushed respect that i don't see in other parks which gives the place a reflective mood. Personally another building would ruin the magic of the place.
Perhaps some more input from the people who use it could be the key? Or even a re-examination of the inscription above the gate:
Make life
good and beautiful here,
no other world is,
no resurrection.