City art: GESOBAU and Deutsche Wohnen present new mural
Today, the two housing companies presented the artistic design on the firewall in the interior courtyard of GESOBAU’s new building in Nordbahnstraße. The artwork, created by the trio of Berlin artists “innerfields”, shows student life in the capital. The project was curated by the artists’ collective Die Dixons, who were the originators of, amongst other things, THE HAUS and the Berlin Mural Festival.
![](https://www.deutsche-wohnen.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Mural_Innerfileds_Pressetermin_Zahn_.jpg)
The firewall in the interior courtyard of Nordbahnstraße in the district of Gesundbrunnen is now brightly coloured. A new mural, created by the trio of Berlin artists “innerfields”, extends across the entire wall. The area, which is around 400 m2 in size, belongs to the neighbouring residential building, which is part of the holdings of Deutsche Wohnen.
In a preliminary phase of this project, various artists were invited to present their ideas with a focus on student life in Berlin. A jury, which included representatives from both GESOBAU and Deutsche Wohnen, selected one of these designs for the project: a young women with a rucksack and headphones is sitting at a laptop. In the background, the Berlin bear is holding a router in its paws.
The mural was chosen as being appropriate to the future tenants of GESOBAU’s new building. From December up to 158 students will live and study here. Overall, the student accommodation consists of 62 rental flats that are suitable for shared living and range in size from one room to five rooms.
As Michael Zahn, CEO of Deutsche Wohnen SE, explains, “Supporting art and culture is part of Deutsche Wohnen’s DNA and is very important to me personally. Our residential neighbourhoods are to be found in Germany’s major cities and we want to support urban art projects and artists in these locations. As a Berlin company, we are delighted to present this most recent work of art and to be offering the students an inspiring view from their windows.”
Jörg Franzen, CEO of GESOBAU AG, comments as follows: “Brightly painted walls are a characteristic feature of Berlin and are an established tradition here. When it came to a design for this wall in Nordbahnstraße, a connection with our city and its emblem was important to us. We are pleased to welcome the first tenants to their new home with a mural designed specially for them. We wish them every success in their studies.”
Deutsche Wohnen
Deutsche Wohnen is one of the leading publicly listed residential property companies in Europe. The business focus of the company is on managing its own portfolio of residential properties in dynamic metropolitan regions and conurbations in Germany. Deutsche Wohnen sees itself as having both a social responsibility and a duty to maintain and newly develop good-quality and affordable housing in vibrant residential neighbourhoods. As at 30 September 2020, the portfolio comprised a total of around 165,700 units, of which 162,700 are residential and 3,000 commercial. Deutsche Wohnen SE is listed in the Deutsche Börse’s DAX and is also included in the leading indices EPRA/NAREIT, STOXX Europe 600, GPR 250 and DAX 50 ESG.
GESOBAU AG
As a state-owned housing corporation, GESOBAU is making an active contribution to making affordable housing available to broad sections of the population in the dynamically growing city of Berlin in the future as well and to maintaining vibrant neighbourhoods. Since 2014, GESOBAU has started once more to build housing and is expanding its holdings through new builds and acquisitions. By 2026 its portfolio will grow to approximately 52,000 flats. Currently, the state-owned corporation with its subsidiaries manages around 43,000 flats of its own, primarily in the north of Berlin. GESOBAU is involved in promoting strong and sustainable neighbourhoods in its estates. It supports educational initiatives and schools and is concerned to achieve the integration into the social environment of all the people who live in its properties. www.gesobau.de