An iconic Brutalist tower has hit the market in Berlin for €3.2m – and it comes with plans to turn it into a house among the clouds.

Bierpinsel (aka the Beer Brush) was designed by architects Ralph Schüler and Ursulina Schüler-Witte in 1972, and stands 47-metre-tall above Schlossstrasse – the city’s second biggest shopping street.

While it looks like it’s straight from the set of a sci-fi movie, its unusual polygonal silhouette is said to be inspired by the shape of a tree. Bierpinsel opened as a restaurant in 1976 before later serving stints as a nightclub and cafe. But the Brutalist tower has struggled to find commercial success as a venue (despite its prominent location) and has been empty since 2006.

It is now on the market via Sotheby’s, whose listing touts the unusual Berlin property as a ‘four-bedroom home’. If you’ve got vertigo, it’s probably not the one for you, but it has panoramic views over Berlin’s cityscape and would make for an colossal adaptive reuse project at 12,765 sq ft.

Interiors of the protected structure have already been gutted ready for renovation, but one thing that hasn’t changed is its vibrant facade. Bierpinsel was used as a canvas for the Turmkunst (Tower Art) street art project in 2010, and despite looking a little weathered, the designs by Honest and Soyzone Gonzales are still intact.

Bierpinsel could also potentially be turned into an off-the-wall boutique hotel, in the style of Copenhagen’s harbourfront coal crane… Subject to planning, of course.

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