Inken and Hinrich Baller

There are two quite distinctive buildings on the Schloßstrasse in Charlottenburg. This school hall, the Carl Schuhmann Hallen

and this block of apartments.

We’d spotted them during our previous visit to Berlin last July and couldn’t help but notice them again during our recent visit to the city, on our way to the  the Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg and the Berggruen Museum. They were very “Art Nouveau” in style, with distinctive architectural features and metalwork ornamentation, but there was something a little different about it – less florid, more “modern”.

A sign on the street revealed that they had been designed by Inken and Hinrich Baller.

The buildings have plenty of glass,

distinctive, angular balconies and “spidery” branch like ironwork

Sharp corners

When we visited the Hackeschen Höfe, we spotted this courtyard that was linked into the complex

Walking through there was something familiar about the architecture

Particularly the ornamentation.

A little research confirmed that the architect was Hinrich Baller.