Domus Transitoria

Competition Entry for Temporary Art Project, Platform U2, Alexanderplatz, Berlin 2004

The station is a public space, a place of transit, a location where one is often present rather unwillingly. It therefore offers only the absolute necessities, but nothing for lingering, comfort, or a sense of well-being. In contrast, private space is a place of retreat, of staying, of protection, of home.

To highlight this transitory character of the station, I will add elements that actually belong in a private, “feel-good” environment: small-scale surface ornaments, like those found on wallpapers and fabrics. They are intended to cover the surfaces of the advertising panels on the side walls, which will be upholstered like cushions with printed PVC foil – a material also used for seats in U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains.

The motifs are created based on pictograms of the BVG (Berlin public transport company) by deconstructing, isolating, and recombining individual elements, which are then expanded with additional motifs. While the initially easily understandable symbols remain readable on their own, they lose their clarity. Their meaning can even be reversed. They are designed to become recognizable only up close – in contrast to the advertising images normally found there, which are meant to be effective from a distance.

The title opens up a perspective on one of the earliest architectural complexes explicitly conceived as a place of transit: the Domus Transitoria in Nero’s Palace in Rome.