Bard College Berlin Residences, German housing buildings development, Architecture images

Bard College Berlin Residences Tops Out

post updated 17 September 2025

Design: CIVILIVN

Location: Berlin, Germany

1 Sep 2020

Bard College Berlin Residences

CIVILIVN created two new student residences for Bard College Berlin, a German-American university that offers a cross-disciplinary liberal arts education in Europe’s most important artistic, political, and economic center.

The residences are designed to tap into the city’s energy and embrace its heritage, advancing the university’s mission to connect students with Berlin’s thriving social, cultural, and political scenes.

Set in the leafy Pankow neighborhood, the former East Berlin embassy district, and arraying 42 apartments, the fraternal twin buildings reflect the multifarious architectural character of Berlin, and create porous connections with the surroundings. The buildings are arranged perpendicularly on a corner lot, forming a courtyard that serves as an informal community gathering place and providing a gateway between the adjacent Intelligienzberg Park and Bard Berlin’s outdoor campus amenity spaces.

Lined with a cafe, lounge and quiet study spaces, the courtyard extends the energy of the neighborhood into the complex and offers a place where students can meet, exchange ideas, study independently, and relax. Acting as a social hub and urban square, the space between the two volumes promotes a close-knit learning community and embeds the project into the fabric of the neighborhood, connecting it with the city beyond.

For the interiors, CIVILIVN designed contemporary living spaces that reference Berlin’s rich heritage in radical communal housing. Custom-designed pieces—including beds, sofas and tables—pay homage to the simple and unornamented geometries and aspirations of Deutscher Werkbund furniture with a focus on sustainable materials, affordability and durability, and digital fabrication techniques. Throughout the interiors, the otherwise neutral color palette of oiled oak, black terrazzo and linoleum is accented by muted reds, yellows, and blues, evoking the visual vocabulary of Bruno Taut, De Stijl and neoplasticism.

CIVILIVN completed the project in collaboration with local architect-of-record Fehr und Partners Gmbh; local landscape architect Hoff Landschaftsarchitektur; and the development team, DBI Projects and Asset Vision Partners. CIVILIVN provided massing and site studies, program studies, and schematic layouts as well as concept design direction packages for the building facade, courtyard landscape, public areas, and student accommodations.