Work in progress

ALLESANDERSSTADT · Window 03

Zentrum Kreuzberg
/ Kotti

Current state · Window 03

A city that changes with the light.

Kotti is still evolving. The current installation shifts between illuminated flats, underground scenes, and a reflective creature: a small city that reveals a different story with each light mode.

Two light modes

Final Kotti window with the creature illuminated — Creature illuminated

Final Kotti window with the apartment lights illuminated — Kotti · flats illuminated

Physical switch on the right side of the Kotti installation — Kotti · flats illuminated

Close view of the reflecting creature inside Kotti — The reflecting creature appears

Kotti mechanics opened to reveal the internal city — The mechanism opens the hidden city

Detail · Kotti

A Späti inside Zentrum Kreuzberg.

Inside Zentrum Kreuzberg, a miniature Späti occupies one of the rooms. One cigarette works behind the counter as the seller while another cigarette arrives as a customer.

The Späti nestled within the wider Kotti miniature city — The Späti within the city

View through the doorway into the Späti inside Zentrum Kreuzberg — Entering the Späti

Cigarette seller behind the counter in the Kotti Späti — The cigarette seller at the counter

Under the concrete city, another language grows.

At Kottbusser Tor, insects cultivate and distribute the universal language plant underground. A manhole opens into a secret route where cigarettes exchange something valuable, descend a ladder, and receive a white blossom.

Above ground, a difficult and highly controlled urban space becomes greener and more cultural: the police station disappears, Café Kotti expands into a treehouse, and a reflective mobile catches light on the roof. The window can shift between illuminated homes and a hidden poetic scene.

Making process · 29 images

Building Kotti from what Kotti discarded.

The materials were gathered around Kottbusser Tor and gradually transformed into architecture, underground spaces, greenery, and a treehouse extension of Café Kotti.

Collecting & planning

The work begins at the site itself. Found cardboard, café waste, wooden sticks, can tabs, and packaging become both the material and the scale of the model.

Collecting discarded construction material around Kottbusser Tor — Material collection at Kotti

Planning drawing using a can tab to determine the window scale — Planning scale with a can tab as a window

Beginning of the Kotti miniature construction — The first architectural structure

Constructing the façade

Found cardboard is cut into the outline of Zentrum Kreuzberg. Discarded beverage can tabs become rows of windows before the completed façade is attached to its base.

Cutting found cardboard for the miniature building — Cutting the recovered cardboard

Can tabs being used as windows in the façade — Can tabs establish the façade rhythm

Completed miniature façade ready for its base — The façade ready to meet the base

Close up of beverage can tab windows — Detail of the discarded openers used as windows

Opening the underground

The cellar is developed from both sides into a hidden spatial layer. Here the story’s underground distribution network and the roots of another city can begin to emerge.

Beginning the underground cellar of the Kotti miniature — The underground layer begins

Left side of the cellar under construction — Developing the left cellar

Right side of the cellar under construction — Developing the right cellar

Completed building structure with façade and base — Façade and underground structure joined

The universal language plant installed in its underground growing room — The universal language plant finds its growing place underground

A floor hatch and a beetle inside the underground level — A floor hatch opens beside the beetle who will distribute the plant

Growing the architecture

Wooden sticks collected from cafés at Kotti spread across the façade. A tree and DNA like spiral staircase appear, while Café Kotti expands into a treehouse assembled with homemade glue from flour, starch, sugar, and water.

Building a tree across the miniature façade — A tree grows across the architecture

Spiral staircase shaped like DNA — The DNA like spiral staircase

Wooden café sticks being added to the façade — Collected café sticks begin the greening

Beginning the Café Kotti treehouse extension — Café Kotti expands into a treehouse

Treehouse parts joined with homemade natural glue — Natural glue made from flour, starch, sugar, and water

Building the treehouse roof with packaging used as a window — A discarded tablet package becomes a window

Life moves inside

Small apartments are built before being inserted behind the façade. Cigarette figures inhabit the rooms, while an unoccupied area opens into a deeper illuminated level. Beneath the homes, a sound studio emerges as another space for culture and collective life.

A cigarette figure living inside a miniature Kotti apartment — An inhabitant moves into one of the apartments

Several miniature apartments before installation in the building — The apartments wait to be installed behind the façade

A cigarette figure fishing beside an opening to a deeper level — A fishing figure marks the transition to a deeper illuminated level

Cigarette figures playing synthesizers in the sound studio before its rear wall is installed — The sound studio shortly before it is enclosed

Rear wall of the sound studio beneath the apartments — The studio’s rear wall takes shape beneath the apartments

Light, colour & assembly

Electronics bring light into the underground grow room. Blue algae colour the backdrop, turning a living material into part of the city’s atmosphere. Finally, the building, treehouse, landscape, and background are joined into one illuminated world.

Blue algae being prepared to colour the artwork background — Blue algae become pigment for the black background

Painting the Kotti background with blue algae — The living pigment spreads across the sky

A sun taking shape on the painted background of the Kotti artwork — The sun begins to emerge across the background

Electronics being installed to illuminate the universal language plant grow room — Installing light in the underground grow room

The background, treehouse, and main Kotti building brought together during final assembly — Background, treehouse, and building come together