Urban Stage: The View
An expanded rooftop terrace for culture, encounters, climate research and new perspectives on the city.
2025
The Urban Stage has been an ongoing spatial and programmatic experiment at ZK/U since 2021. Across four consecutive iterations, it has developed in parallel with the transformation of the building: from a temporary, scaled-down version of the future rooftop terrace on the forecourt, through the first activation of the new roof, to a permanently expanding infrastructure for artistic production, neighbourhood encounters and collective assemblies. The Urban Stage is not conceived as a finished piece of architecture, but as a living lab that is continuously developed through use, experimentation and collective appropriation. Artists, designers, urban researchers, local initiatives and neighbours test new forms of gathering, climate adaptation, urban ecology and public cultural production here. Each phase draws on the experiences, materials and relationships of the previous one and translates them into a new spatial constellation: Construction Explained, Commons Cosmodrome, The View and Assembly thus mark four moments within an open-ended process of transformation.
In 2025, the Urban Stage developed into an extended rooftop landscape. New technical, ecological and social infrastructures—including a bar, a weather station and a permanent base for the MoaBees—made longer and more varied forms of use possible. The roof increasingly became a place where cultural production, climate research, hospitality and everyday observation could overlap.
Under the title The View, the Urban Stage turned its attention towards its surroundings. From the roof, the city appears not as a distant panorama but as a constantly changing field of relationships: the railway tracks and logistics infrastructures of Westhafen meet the residential streets, parks and social life of Moabit. The platform makes these intersections visible and invites visitors to observe how industry, mobility, urban nature and neighbourhood life coexist.
A reused illuminated sign from the Bauhaus Museum became a prominent element of the rooftop architecture. Through its relocation and transformation, an existing object gained a new public function as a landmark and observation platform. This approach continued the Urban Stage’s commitment to working with reused materials and adaptable structures rather than treating architecture as a fixed and completed object.
The programme combined ecological experimentation with markets, music and neighbourhood activities. The ClimART parcours transformed the rooftop into a field for artistic and environmental research, while projects such as Active CITYzens, the GÜTERMARKT, the Berliner Fahrradmarkt and LaBAR Day expanded its social and civic uses. Concerts and performances—including Echo—explored the particular acoustic and visual qualities of the elevated site.
Scene Design and production: Miodrag Kuč, ZK/U
Architecture and construction: Jan Körbes, reFUNC; Daniel
Programming: ClimART team, Kollektiv Untergang
Selected projects: ClimART, Active CITYzens, GÜTERMARKT with Berliner Fahrradmarkt, LaBAR Day
Funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) based on a resolution of the German Bundestag.
More information on BMUKN and on our lead partner. Funding code: 67DAS274.
Supported by the Creative Europe Programme.