The building that once housed Berlin’s famous Kunsthaus Tacheles artist squat is to be redeveloped by Swiss star architects Herzog & de Meuron.

In September 2014, the large house was purchased by New York-based financial services firm Parella Weinberg and Partners for an impressive €150 million ($190 million).

At the time, the firm pledged to redevelop the near-derelict former department store for a cultural purpose.

According to information obtained by Der Tagesspiegel, the renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron have been hired to redesign the site.

The preliminary phases of the project are reportedly underway, as the architects have already presented a concrete proposal to city officials from the Mitte District and the Senate Department for Urban Development.

The exterior of Kunsthaus Tacheles in 2008
Photo: Okin via Wikimedia Commons

The plans include the reconstruction of previously demolished parts of the complex, as well as the addition of courtyards and extra buildings.

The plans also entail the conservation of the Tacheles’ legendary cinema, cafe, iron sculptures, studios, and exhibition space. The remaining part of the complex is set to become apartments, shops, hotels, and office spaces.

“The proposals of the architects were welcomed by consensus,” Martin Pallgen, spokesman for Berlin’s Senate Department for Urban Development, told Der Tagesspiegel.

One of the last remnants of postwar Berlin’s grimy bohemian charm is being replaced by what will presumably become yet another sanitary steel-and-glass building.

That’s why, inevitably, many Berliners are against the development. Tacheles is emblematic of the changes the entire city is going through.