01 – ABOUT US
POLIGONAL organizes exploratory scholar-led tours for city aficionados and architecture lovers through the city of Berlin.
We investigate and communicate contemporary architectural topics and urban developments in our city walks, workshops, and seminars.
We draw on many years of experience as academic researchers and university teachers in urbanism and architecture. We collaborate with numerous local experts, a network that you will benefit from.
We customize our city walks, workshops, and seminars to your thematic requirements and individual interests.
Our portfolio is tailored to a wide audience, from universities and students, Berlin travellers, businesses, and conference delegations – to professionals and non-professionals alike.
Dr Christian Haid
As Urbanist, Architect and Researcher, Christian has experience in academic education and research in city planning, urban design, architecture, urban sociology, and urban management. His thematic focus is on urban theory, critical urban research, informal urbanism, everyday urban practices, as well as process-oriented city planning. Christian is Senior Researcher at the Habitat Unit and lecturer at the Urban Management Masters Programme of the Technical University Berlin.
Lukas Staudinger, Mag.arch. MA
As architect, urbanist and curator Lukas has gained hands-on experience and has worked as a university lecturer for many years. His thematic focus is on historic and contemporary housing, post-war urbanism, architectural heritage, and urban everyday life. Lukas is also a trainer for team building techniques and mediation processes.
02 – CITY WALKS
The city is alive. Our thematic urban walks in Berlin allow for unexpected vantage points and surprising views of the city’s manifold layers.
POLIGONAL’s unique city tours and walks expose views of Berlin which are off the beaten track. The experience of the city, its architecture and its urban phenomena always take center stage. We offer a variety of thematic tours through different neighbourhoods. Our tours specialize in uncovering hidden city life. We focus on the city’s architecture, on urban development, and on social dynamics, both contemporary and historically. Our philosophy is to spark enthusiasm and curiosity for local urban questions.
Apart from our standard tours we offer customized tours according to your specific interests. Get in touch and we will tailor a tour just for you.
****** NEW ******
Our all new self-guided audio walks have been launched:
Check out our DRIFTER page for all audio formats or scroll down.
Examples of our city walks and tours
- Informal Berlin / The Makeshift City.
- The Modernist Heritage in Berlin / From the Past to the Future.
- Architecture of Politics Rivalry /
Karl Marx Allee vs. Hansaviertel. - Contemporary Modes of Production in Architecture and city Planning/ Berlin Kreuzberg.
03 – AUDIO
Our thematic audiowalks are companions to explore the city’s architecture and urban environments. They allow you to discover unknown places, listen to unheard stories and make for unexpected encounters.
Put your earphones in and let our very own audio walk app DRIFTER be your compass guiding you through the city in one of our immersive audio walks. Have fun strolling through urban space and the city in a new way – in audio guided walks packed with thoroughly-researched information, commented by experts, loaded with authentic testimonies and enriched with voices from locals.
We collaborate with research and cultural institutions, and a wide range of actors involved in urban development and transformation processes.
Our latest audio formats:
- Gildenhall – a 1920s Utopia at Ruppiner See
- Nothing that ever was changes – Disappearing queer spaces in Berlin
- Kolbe’s Kiez for the Georg Kolbe Museum
- Alle Jahre Wohnungsfrage! for Bezirksmuseum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Villa Oppenheim
- Im Alltag, der Raum. Exhibition with seven acoustic portraits for the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin
- Düttmann und die Stadt als Reaktion for the exhibition Werner Düttmann.Building.Berlin at Brücke Museum
04 – CONCEPTS
Urban communication is an integral part of urban practice. Our concept work includes curatorial and editorial projects as well as the programming of events and exhibition formats.
For us, communicating urban and architectural issues is an essential part of urban practice. Our curatorial work creates connections between physical and social urban space, culture, society, politics and science communication.
We develop performative and co-created interventions in urban space, program exhibitions and events in public and digital space and implement them.
With the aim of enabling discourses, our thematic priorities include queer urban space, identity and visibility, as well as the right to the city.
05 – EXCURSIONS AND PACKAGES
Study trip packages to experience Berlin – from concept to organization.You also benefit from our network in the areas of architecture, urban planning and urban practice.
POLIGONAL plans your time in Berlin and takes on the entire organization of your architecture and urbanism related study trip.
University excursions, research trips, company outings: We are specialized in the conceptualization and organization of study trips for groups of all sizes.
According to your thematic needs POLIGONAL provides you with a customized program during your stay in Berlin and organizes your tour, citywalk, workshop and team building seminar as a total package including accommodation and restaurant visits.
Take advantage of our experience, local knowledge, and our wide network in Berlin.
06 – RESEARCH
Urbanity is generated through a complex of social, political, material, cultural, and economical practices that can never be thought of disjointedly.
POLIGONAL researches on urban everyday life and current developments in city planning and urbanism. We critically investigate the city, with focus on contemporary relevant and underrepresented phenomena. Our research projects engage with an array of methods, such as qualitative social research, ethnographic investigations of everyday life worlds and urbanistic locations studies.
The outcomes of our research interweave with our tours, workshops and city walks. POLIGONAL organizes events, discussions, lectures, and film screenings.
Current research fields include informal urbanism, diversity in urban neighborhoods, and city planning in Berlin since 1968.