CO-OP City Guide: Berlin

Working in Berlin From January to July 2014, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work at the Berlin office of gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner.  This German architecture firm is internationally recognized for the design of the Brasilia National Stadium as seen in the World Cup 2014 matches.

A large branch of the firm works on a variety of projects in China including office and residential towers and hotel resorts.  UWSA alumna Elsa Tang who had done several of her co-op workterms at gmp, now works full-time on the China team headed by Ralf Sieber.  My primary role was to build and maintain the 3d representation of the building complex from the conceptual phase through schematic design until the end of the design development phase.  Under the expert supervision of Matthias Fruntke, I gleamed the beauty and fastidiousness of precise German building detailing. Language It’s always helpful to know a bit of the local language when living in a foreign country.  During my undergrad at UWaterloo, I’d taken German 101 once upon a time.  I still retained a faint knowledge of the language but was far from being able to communicate in any useful way.  In general, there is no need to worry.  Germans especially in Berlin are quite fluent in English.  Berlin is home to 44,000 expats who’s first language is English, this represents 1.3% of the population.  Toytown Germany is a great resource for any questions you may have as an expat living in Germany. After arriving in Berlin, I discovered that most German language courses such as those offered at the DeustchAkademie were intensive programs of at least 12 hours a week.  This wouldn’t have been a problem if the classes were on the weekends.  However, Germans love their time off, so you would be hard-pressed to find teachers who would work on the weekends unless you hire a private tutor.  Classes are typically scheduled during the daytime hours of the weekdays.  While working full-time, I managed to take a 16-week beginner’s course at Die Neue Schule with 90-minute evening classes twice a week.  If I were to do things over,  I would have taken a 2-week intensive course at Die Neue Schule instead of starting work the weekend immediately after my plane landed in Berlin.  A budget option for learning German would be to register early for a government-subsidized German language integration course at the Volkshochschule.

German Language at Work Like most international architecture firms who hire students from abroad, gmp does not require their interns to know how to speak German.  Knowing the language is useful.  My computer was in German.  Even though in Autocad, you could toggle the menu ribbon to English, all shortcuts and error messages were in German. Weekly meetings intended to inform the team about recent projects, though highly visual, were presented in German.  Also, small group meetings consisting of mostly German speakers will inevitably transition from English to German especially when colleagues get passionate about debating the merits of one design philosophy over another.  This makes it difficult for non-German speakers to join into the conversation. Living Expenses Berlin ist arm, aber sexy.  (Berlin is poor but sexy.)  Living expenses in Berlin, though rising, are still quite low compared to the likes of other major European cities like London or Paris.  European architecture firms pay very low wages to their student interns because tuition at European universities is either free or very affordable.  Berlin’s low cost of living makes it a prime candidate for a UWSA work term in Europe, if you want to at least break even on travel and living costs.  For €350 or less a month, you can land yourself a room in a flatshare in the city centre. As a student, you can purchase a reduced monthly bus/U-Bahn pass for €55.  Most companies will reimburse a portion of that amount as a way to cover the cost of your commute. Living in Berlin is quite cheap also because shops are open for very limited hours and definitely not on Sundays. Sundays are best spent having a beer in the park. Berlin is also famous for unpretentious dive bars that have casual yet artfully decorated spaces.

Food in Berlin is really good.  Lunch specials around the office were €5 on average.  Cheaper meals could be had at the university cafeterias (mensa) nearby.  For more information on the best places to eat, Elsa Tang, the true foodie, has a map of her favourite restaurants and eateries in all of Berlin.  My expertise is only in the fried chicken department.  I was surprised to find that Berlin has one of the world’s best fried chicken joints, Henne.

Museums are typically half price with your student card.  There’s also no shortage of gallery openings to attend for free.  And if you’re around in early February, there’s the Berlinale.  Some tickets at smaller venues for this international film festival go for as low as €5,50.

Berlin Architecture Firms Sauerbruch Hutton is another architecture firm in Berlin that hires many Canadians. FSPG is a firm that prefers students with full working knowledge of German.  However, there have been past student interns who spoke only English. Fellow Students/Alumnus who have worked in Berlin Christina Chan (gmp) christina.linda.chan@gmail.com Elsa Tang (gmp) elsa.tang.i.s@gmail.com Katrina Malinski kmalinski@hotmail.com Patrick Harvey (Sauerbruch Hutton) p2harvey@gmail.com Daniel Sebaldt (FSPG) danielsebaldt@hotmail.com