An Homage to Berlin

not one of the 6 people that works at FUNDAMENTAL was born or raised in berlin. that's how you spot a great city, a place where people come to, with the time, the space and the drive to make new things happen. nearly 10 years later, we made an homage to the city that shaped us, looked at the theories of the beautiful city and there is a great 48h deal as always to reward our loyal readers.

what is the inherent beauty of a large city? live in the here and now, find beauty in the formlessness and fertile chaos of the city. don't dream of a supposedly pure and idealised arcadia, which we know can never really exist, or would be ruined quickly if we found it.

this is the message that august endell brought to us in 1908, after moving back to his native berlin from munich. through his eyes, a rough and ready city like berlin is a 'miracle of poetry and beauty'. the tremendous energy and diversity of human life finds its expression in stone and steel.

endell urges us to be pragmatic about finding and creating beauty where human life is. we at FUNDAMENTAL sign up to this vision wholeheartedly, and do what we can to find and create beauty where we are, drawing inspiration from the life all around us. it's amazing how fresh this text is, 113 years later, and how it fits our post corona world better than ever - there are some great short excerpts here translated into english.

the map of the city of berlin, which informs our tray, tells the story of grid planning in the 18th century, radial planning in the 19th century, and all the hopeful gaps left by the century of destruciton and division. it's all about the oscillation between prussian discipline and bohemian experimentation. follow the lazy, winding spree river through the tiergarten, the s-bahn viaduct linking east and west, the perfect north-south axis of the friedrichstrasse and the open spaces of alexanderplatz the berlin objects start life in italy, where the base plate is etched with minute precision from a 1mm thick solid sheet of brass.

the brass is then sanded to give it a luxurious, satin sheen, before being pressed into shape in our social workshop in teltow, in the south of berlin. the bookmark is perfect for your bedside, the coasters will protect your table with their little silicone feet, and the two trays will hold your valuables or serve drinks and snacks. all of them will add a sophisticated and thoughtful memory to your home, or make a perfect, easy to send gift.