COMMUNITY KIEZ* DESIGN PROJECT
Creating a space to grow

At NION we strive for a new model of harmonious living. Our goal is to craft and build an engaging community space online and in real life to open a gateway for modern lifestyle, technology, crafts, education, health and living.

That is why we are designing an urban development project, which combines unique cultures and ecosystems ranging from a growing international community to the local Berlin Kiez* with a Japan twist.

*Kiez means living quarter in Berlin dialect.

Interested? Read on to preview our plans for the development.

 

 

Why NION?

We believe that it is important to be smart, not only for our convenience. We see ourselves as boundless and conscious beings who share the earth with other humans and non-humans, including the invisible and inaudible.

It is an urgent call to create a safe and open space where we are allowed to ideate, prototype, test, implement, revise, and re-apply what matters to our life in order to accommodate all beings on this planet. Therefore, our behaviors in business, science, technology, learning, family, culture, and art must be attuned.

Our answer is to build an entire neighborhood with its surrounding natural landscape. We will create our space from the foundation such as soil, water, and air. To do so, we chose Berlin as our main location.

 

Why Japan and Berlin?

Japanese culture, particularly the high level of quality when it comes to craftsmanship, technology, or cleaning, continues to inspire people in Europe. Meanwhile, Berlin is known as the cultural hotspot in the heart of Europe. Its healthy “life-work” balance and abundant cultural outlets created a young entrepreneurial hub for extraordinary projects.

By building a bridge between two strong forces, we could create a climate of collaboration and inspire more of us to pursue new ways of living.

 
 

WHAT TO EXPECT

 

 

NION Marketplace
Downtown feeling at the Shotengai

A spread of small bars, restaurants and cafes next to hand-picked sophisticated shops, book stores, and fashion and design outlets revive a much loved Shitamachi-downtown feeling immersed in a Berlin green oasis.

Little ryokans and a capsule hotel with more than 150 stores densely packed next to and on top of each other will make you feel like you’re in a vivid Japanese neighbourhood with a Berlin twist.

 

 

NION Tech Hub
For Berlin’s international smart, open quarter

NION will operate smart city technologies where scientific and engineering inventions are implemented right away for urban issues, such as waste management, mobility, and an on-site smart grid of alternative energy.

• We will offer a residency program for innovators
with 25 temporary apartments •

This highly equipped innovation hub with a fabrication café and a number of workshops on power include co-sharing and co-creation spaces to facilitate collaborations between Berliners, artists and creatives, international entrepreneurs, universities, and corporates, with emphasis on Japanese counterparts’ participation.

Intense workshops ignite ideas and the residency program will foster long-term and in-depth development of products and solutions for a better today and tomorrow.

 

 

NION Craftsmanship Program
A gateway for Japanese Masters

Berlin is seeing a revival of craftsmanship. With the NION craftsmanship program, we would like to create a gateway for Japanese masters to pass on their wisdom in the heart of Europe.

• We will offer a residency program for apprentices
with 25 temporary apartments •

The traditional arts of Japanese craftsmen require precision and delicacy to master. However, these traditional techniques of wood-work, paper-making, and ceramics are at the brink of extinction.

The NION craftsmanship program opens a gateway for Japanese masters to pass on their traditional craftsmanship in the heart of Europe and weave new collective knowledge with people around the world. As a stepping stone, the NION program will start an apprenticeship for international students with Japanese masters in Berlin before they cross the ocean to pursue their passion for perfection at its very roots. We will set up a residency program with 4 fully-equipped workshops where master craftsmen can showcase their work as well as teach.

 

 

NION Art Center
Hosting creative works exhibitions

The Art Center will play a lead role in hosting exhibitions for creative works and gatherings for contemplation on art from different aspects.

• We will offer a residency program for artists
with 25 temporary apartments •

The NION Art Center is a house for any cultural and artistic form ranging from traditional avant-garde such as Noh as well as contemporary arts like a digital media art installation.

25 residency studios accommodate local and international creatives who will fill the NION Art Center with exciting, unusual, thought-provoking, and beautiful exhibitions, performances, concerts and conferences.

 

 

NION Health Center
Dojo and Sento as an oasis of recreation

We believe that creating a healthy balance in our life is crucial for an overall well-being. Therefore, we decided to open up a space for health and physical activity: an oasis of recreation.

• We will offer a residency program for apprentices with 10 temporary apartments •

In the Dojo, Berliners will have an opportunity of trying out traditional martial arts, like Karate and Kendo, callisthenics, and fitness. In the Sento (traditional Japanese bath house), Berliners will be exposed to an array of Eastern natural therapies from massages, acupuncture to other alternative remedies.  

 

NION Learning Center
Generate sustainable answers and foster co-learning

Whether we talk about social innovation or Intangible Cultural Heritage: we need to foster healthy relationship to the next generations to pass it on as well as to spark their passion for learning.

• We will offer a residency program for masters and teachers
with 5 temporary apartments •

The source of our inspiration is the studio schools of the Renaissance, where there was enough space to provide the perfect balance between practice and study. Here, body, mind and soul of students grew unlimitedly under the guidance of their teachers.

 

 

NION Community Garden
Enhancing diversity and growth of animals and plants with people

NION listens to the invisibles, who express themselves not necessarily with our comprehensible languages but by other means. How do we creatively and playfully incorporate their perspectives into NION garden design?

We envision NION located by the river and surrounded with trees, adding to Berlin’s open-space culture and green parks. NION is a horizontally open hill that covers over multiple buildings beneath. Community farms and parks are equipped within it. Our riverside hill will bestow benefits for urban biodiversity.

The garden stretches over the roofs of the whole NION landscape, including inside the architecture, and becomes the connecting entity of all clusters of the NION eco-system.

Re-create the city in a biodiverse way

The diversity of flora and fauna is drastically decreasing by the growing habitats of urban areas and constant intrusion of humans. However, we are actually able to re-create and restructure our cities in a biodiverse way and enhance the variety and growth of animals and plants within. Our city life and reintroduction of nature to it are not opposites, but can harmonize with each other, simply because our cities are part of nature.

NION will give back nature what it has gifted us.

 

 

NION Residences
An inspiring living environment for everybody

NION is an open hand-in-hand approach to create an inspiring environment for everybody.

The concept behind the community is an old one: Berliner Mischung is a 250 year-old idea of combining residential, commercial, and productive spaces within one town block. At NION, we will dedicate 35% of the space to social housing projects. The architectural design will support the idea by stimulating encounters among residents with very different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.