Berlin's 5 Industrial buildings anchor the city's identity as a place where engineering and architecture have always overlapped. Peter Behrens's AEG Turbine Factory of 1909 — a steel-and-glass temple to industrial production — is widely regarded as the first truly modern building, a structure where function, material, and form aligned without historical ornament.
The Adlershof research campus contributes three purpose-built scientific facilities: Horst Welser's spherical laboratories, Hermann Brenner and Werner Deutschmann's wind tunnel and engine test bench — each shaped by the precise demands of aeronautical and materials research. Brenner & Partner's BESSY II synchrotron facility continues the tradition into the present day. Together, these buildings demonstrate that Berlin's most forward-looking architecture has often emerged not from cultural commissions but from the requirements of science and industry.
