52.5174°N / 13.3951°E · Germany
Berlin reads first in horizontal bands, because the ground commands it: the Barnim plateau to the north, the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley in the middle, the Teltow plateau to the south. It is in that valley that the Spree lingers in meanders.
You choose the framing, the palette and the words of the caption. The work is drawn from real data, then printed to order in the workshop closest to you.
For nearly eleven kilometres the Spree is doubled by the long curve of the Landwehrkanal, which leaves it at Friedrichshain, runs south-west, turns north-west through Kreuzberg and rejoins it at Charlottenburg. Between the two lines sits an elongated lens holding the Tiergarten, northern Kreuzberg and the centre. Do not confuse the two main waters: the Spree crosses the valley from east to west, the Havel comes down from north to south on the western side of the city, in a chain of lakes.
The rest of the sheet is made of voids, and it is they that carry the map: the bare rectangle of Tempelhofer Feld at the bottom, a counterweight to the fullness of the centre. Further west, outside this frame, the green mass of the Grunewald and the chain of the Havel widen the city until it becomes a landscape. That is where the Teufelsberg stands, and one thing is worth knowing about it: the high point of western Berlin is artificial, a hill of war rubble piled up from June 1950 to 1972, some twenty-six million cubic metres, covering an unfinished Nazi military academy the Allies had failed to demolish with explosives.
Few colours and clear values: a very light grey ground for a fabric of render and concrete, a cool blue grey water for the Spree, the Havel and the lakes, a single dark ink for the roads, and a deep green kept for the forest. About a third of the city’s surface is taken up by forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes: the green is not an accent, it is a mass. Berlin has neither golden stone nor tile, and warmth here would be a contradiction of material.
The spine of the drawing, the Spree and the Landwehrkanal, runs east to west, and the frame has to hold it from edge to edge, from the Osthafen to the Tiergarten and Charlottenburg. Tempelhofer Feld has to stay at the bottom, as an empty counterweight to the fullness of the centre. The Grunewald and the Havel lakes belong to another scale: bringing them in would reduce the centre to a patch. A last word on the rail ring, which everyone cites: it is there, but our backgrounds draw it too finely to make a figure. Landscape will give you the column of water larger.
The title, a line beneath it, the coordinates. The name of a district, a date, the name of a station: that line is what turns a plan of Berlin into your plan of Berlin.
Sixteen inks, in the configurator’s order. It is not in the catalogue, but you will find it in the palette library, filed under its material.
Opens the colour workshop with these 16 inks in place: change one, keep the rest.
It will wait in your account, ready for any piece.
The Landwehrkanal, ten point seven kilometres long, was dug between 1845 and 1850 to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné. It doubles the Spree in parallel, linking its upstream reach at the Osthafen in Friedrichshain to its downstream reach at Charlottenburg, crossing Kreuzberg and the Tiergarten. On the plan it is the second line of water, the one that closes the lens of the centre.
The S-Bahn ring is thirty-seven and a half kilometres long and was closed on 15 November 1877. Its outline seen from above earns it the nickname Hundekopf, dog’s head. The eighty-eight square kilometres it encloses form fare zone A, and its line has also bounded the low-emission zone since 1 January 2008. One reservation, though: on our backgrounds the railway is drawn as a very fine line. The ring is there, but it does not make the figure, and it should not be relied on to hold the composition.
It surrounded West Berlin, which was an enclave: one hundred and fifty-five kilometres of perimeter, of which only forty-three separated the two halves of the city. Construction began on 13 August 1961, the first concrete sections laid on 17 August; full demolition began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1994. Its line has largely been absorbed into the fabric, and a map that spoke only of it would miss the geography, which has not moved.
Yes. The search covers the whole world, from a capital to a hamlet. For the Sky collection, any date works, past or future: the sky is calculated.
From 21 × 29.7 cm to 84.1 × 118.9 cm, that is A4 to A0, portrait or landscape depending on the material. Every size is shown with its price in the editor.
Four, from the barest to the most dressed.
Allow 1 to 4 working days for making, up to 7 for hand-assembled frames and canvases, then 1 to 6 working days in transit with standard delivery.
Digital editions are available immediately: the file of your piece is emailed to you as soon as you order.
The bridge over the canal, the courtyard you lived in, the edge of the field where you can see the whole sky. The valley is the same for everyone. What you keep of it is not.
Compose my Berlin poster
