Platoon Kunsthalle Berlin

NOTE: The Platoon Kunsthalle Berlin was removed in 2017 and relocated to Hamburg, Germany where it was reborn as the Hammerbrooklyn Box in 2020.

Platoon is an international cultural organization that has branches for both agency work and global community building. The latter group exists to support creative pursuits across a wide array of media and outlets. One of the ways they do that is with the Kunsthalle, which in German means ‘Art Hall’.

While there are several Kunsthalles in Germany run by different organizations, Platoon’s Kunsthalle in Berlin is quite unique because of its container architecture. It’s a large, flexible space that works as a gallery, performance hall, event center, etc. Essentially, a platform for creativity that can be used in multiple ways.

The designers took 33 shipping containers and combined them in a relatively simple way to create this massive structure. It was designed so that it could be deconstructed and moved if required since the land it sat on was leased.

First, the builders created two parallel rows of containers separated by 24 feet. Each row is three 40ft containers long and tall. On top of the two parallel rows are 15 more shipping containers, placed side by side and forming the roof. The ends of the building were closed off, a bar and entrance were added to the 1st floor, some additional floating spaces were added on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and the building was ready!

The front facade of the building is striking thanks to its use of floor-to-ceiling windows in container-shaped squares. This also provides tons of natural light into the spaces on all three floors, since the solid container roof doesn’t allow for any light transmission.

Speaking of those 15 roof containers, they are surprisingly not accessible and are really just used to form the roof and nothing else. Theoretically, a staircase could be extended and they could be used for storage though.

In its current configuration though, both internal and external staircases only go to the offices and storage rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The majority of the space is reserved for the high-ceiling open space, where hundreds of different art, fashion, music, and even political events have taken place.