a+u 626 features the most recent wave of construction in Berlin. Thirty-two years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall – a period longer than the life of the wall itself – and the city has entered a new phase of normalisation, with the genre, styles, and values of architecture being decidedly different from those of the post-Reunification euphoria. While major initiatives such as the restoration of Museum Island have brought glory back to the many monuments of historic Berlin, this current period of so-called normalisation has benefited from Berlin’s “putatively abnormal, vacated, fragmented, and duplicative condition,” as outlined by Florian Hertweck. Berlin became a cultural capital that attracted young, risk-taking creatives, with opportunities for cross-disciplinary experimentations and collaborations. Self-determined building groups sought to provide well-designed and affordable housing by negotiating unwanted urban pockets and well-planned construction schemes.