This thesis explores the adaptive reuse of the underground levels of the Vollgut Building—part of the former Kindl Brewery in Berlin-Neukölln—transforming an industrial relic into a cultural platform for newcomers, immigrants, and marginalized groups. Designed for Give Something Back to Berlin foundation, the project believes in architecture as a tool for belonging, reactivating space through subtraction, exposure, and radical reuse.
A spatial journey unfolds: visitors enter through the Steel Forest, where 100 untouched steel columns are mirrored on the ceiling to evoke vertical infinity. From there, the Six Tubes—former barrel-vaulted cooling chambers—are transformed into hybrid workshop, bar, and exhibition spaces through glass arches, mezzanines, and a flowing ramp system. The Art Corridor leads to the Performance Hall, the former storage tank department, a vast, flexible 30x30m gathering space stripped to its raw core—open to constant reinvention.From circulation strategies to barrier-free access, from spatial sequencing to minimal, precise interventions—every move was about amplifying what was already there. Beyond architecture, this is a spatial act of empowerment—offering GSBTB and its communities a place shaped by participation and care. It is not just a renovation—it is a reinvention. A space ready to grow, shift, and evolve with its users over time.
