Smartart

High-Rise Buildings

Project:

Wall paintings on high-rise buildings

in Demen, Mecklenburg Vorpommern

In September 2001, smartart was asked to create designs for wall paintings on high-rise buildings. The client was the project development company ‘Projektentwicklung Schlüter’ from Mariental. The estate in question in Demen, near Schwerin, had been neglected and extensive redevelopment was necessary.


Before: View from an angle, Block 7…		...and view from the road, Block 3

But in order to not simply redevelop ‘another’ high-rise building estate that would again be rejected by the citizens, the plan was to transform these monotonously shaped buildings and make them more interesting by painting them with large-sized pictures.
	Article: Schweriner Anzeiger (click to zoom)

The estate is situated in a remote woodland area, so the plan was to use landscape motives which suited the environment.

The blocks were redeveloped one after another and the wall paintings were painted in co-operation with the painters and scaffolding firms - ’just in time’.

Design of Block 2

Soon after the completion of the first block, the project was seen to be a visible success:
The estate was referred to as the ‘artist village’ or ‘picture estate’ and everyone talked about it.


View from an angle, Block 2, front		Block 2, rear

It soon paid off to be the talk of the town: everyone was keen to live on an estate with the nice pictures on the wall!


Block 3, rear		Block 5, rear

There was a general increase in interest in an otherwise rather uninteresting estate. Comparing the public appeal and the improved image with the additional costs, a better cost-benefit ratio can hardly be imagined.
The costs were approx. 0.7 % of the overall cost of the redevelopment.

Block 3, gable wall

gable wall, before

Block 1, gable wall