Berlin ­ In many ways, Steinberg, a "Kleingartenkolonie" in the northern suburbs of Berlin, reflects typical Germanness: identical rectangular garden plots lined up in orderly rows, separated by identical mesh wire fences and all very neatly groomed.

Most plots are dominated by substantial wooden chalets. Senior part-time gardeners turn their heads to look at passers-by and nod at them before, reassured, turning back on their petunias and pumpkins.

Allotments like Steinberg are a familiar sight in German cities and have a long tradition.

In plot number 63 along Fliederweg (lilac alley) however, a quiet attempt is taking place to disturb the uniform appearance of the colony - and to scratch the surface of the German Kleingarten cliche at the same time.

A modern designer cottage, resembling a Scandinavian boat house, made of pine wood and painted in red stripes stands out from the neighbouring huts.

The usual garden plot holder is seen as restricted," says Meinhard Schroeder. Literally, as his horizon is the garden fence and figuratively, regarding his attitudes and opinions, adds the 65 year old with a laugh.

The unusual garden home at number 63 belongs to his partner, Margrit Behncke, who sees herself as part of a change underway in Germany's Kleingarten culture. We all need change, don't we?", says the pensioner, whose second summer season in her designer cottage is drawing to an end.

The plot colonies all are self-governing communities, managed by elected boards. To freshen up their image and rejuvenate their elderly membership, the clubs are seeking new ways to win young families for spare-time gardening.

That was how the idea to create a new type of Kleingarten building - in association with the Berlin Kleingarten Association - came up, recalls architect Frank Schoenert. We want to revolutionise the image of garden cottages," says Schoenert. But we are no style dictators."

The office he heads together with an old college friend specializes in urban "niches". Apart from cottages, they work on houseboats, tool sheds or rooftop pavilions.

Behncke's fashionable cottage was met by mixed reactions from her Steinberg neighbours with comments ranging from You need to get used to it." to That doesn't fit here."

The architectural project wants to incite reform but also goes back to the roots of Kleingarten culture in Germany. Initially, the Kleingarten or Schrebergarten movement was not aimed at elderly spare-time gardeners but at children from the deprived environments of early industrial cities.

It was Leipzig physician and anthropologist Daniel Gottlieb Schreber whose commitment to children from working-class families led to the establishment of the first Schreber gardens" in the 1870s.

They were originally meant to offer children a space to play close to nature and to teach them responsibility by giving them their own garden beds to look after.

Soon, the children's parents took over the plots, built fences and sheds and started to spread Schreber's idea all over Germany's cities.

Today, there are more than 1 million Kleingarten plots in Germany, covering 466 square kilometres, and around 4 million people active in Schreber's movement.

Despite the cliche of narrow-mindedness, excessive correctness and over-regulation ­ the nationwide Kleingarten law giving a colourful illustration of the latter - Kleingarten colonies have in the past harboured revolutionary tendencies, as Kleingarten aficionado Schroeder points out.

During World War Two, some resistance fighters and the politically persecuted hid in these Schrebergaerten", he says. One of them was German Jew Hans Rosenthal, who became a famous quiz show host in the 1970s." In the 1980s, Kleingarten tenants united with environment activists to preserve the garden colonies as a part of Berlin's landscape, he adds.

Margrit Behncke agrees with her partner that since then, Schrebergarten culture has begun to slowly change. Years ago, there used to be the annual inspection, during which the club board would check on the plots, if everything was in order", she recalls.

Now, responsibility is increasingly left to the tenants. Nevertheless, encrusted club structures slow down reforms says Behncke. I would love it, for instance, if the colonies would open up to migrants." (dpa)