Gifts made in Berlin

Most things sold as a Berlin gift were not made in Berlin. These were. The studio, the shop and the assembly bench are all at Ackerstraße 1a in Mitte, and have been since 2011.

Here is the actual chain. Crystal is pressed and cut. Steel is laser-cut and folded. Brass is precision-milled in Italy, by the same kind of workshop that makes medical instruments, because the tolerances are the same. Then it comes to Berlin, and a good deal of it is assembled by hand in a workshop that employs people with disabilities — a real working arrangement, not a line on an about page.

The Berlin pieces, specifically

• Berlin – Pen Tray — the city’s plan, cut into brass and folded into a tray. The literal answer to this question.
• Penrose – Pen Tray — milled in Italy, formed in the Berlin workshop.
• Push – Jewelry Bowl — arrives flat and is shaped by whoever owns it. Assembled in Berlin.
• Rainbow – Candleholder — lead crystal with a dichroic film, so the colour moves with the flame.
• Liquid — a wall candleholder in reclaimed steel, designed with the Berlin architect J. MAYER H.

Why anyone outside Berlin has heard of them

The same studio has been commissioned by the Centre Pompidou and the Grand Palais in Paris, and the work sits in the MoMA Design Store in New York and in the shops of the Réunion des musées nationaux. That is a reasonable thing to be able to say while handing someone a parcel.

Come and collect it

The shop is at Ackerstraße 1a, 10115 Berlin, Monday to Friday, 9:00–18:00. S-Bahn Hackescher Markt or U-Bahn Rosenthaler Platz. The shopfront is on the street and the studio is behind it, so you can usually see the work being done. Directions and opening times.

More: design gifts by price · gifts for architects and designers.