Berlin has been melded back together so well over the last two decades that there are now very few obvious visual clues to the division that once was: the shiny "golf ball" TV Tower, the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining stretch of the wall), and the odd scattering of blocky GDR buildings, which defined eastern development in the 1960s when the city was in dire need of reconstruction.

Although many of these East German government buildings were knocked down after 1989, and many of those that still stand are ugly, cheap monstrosities, the most iconic remaining examples of this era-defining architecture are now winning the interest of a new generation, thanks in part to the current buzz around the 20th anniversary of the wall coming down. Many young Berliners now think of the GDR era with nostalgia; it's no longer something to forget.

The distinctive buildings – clean and modernist, inspired by Bauhaus or grandly Soviet – which did away with the sharp corners and rectangles of Nazi buildings – have been adopted by businesses, and are now home to many of the city's coolest nightspots, galleries and cafes.

One of the city's most exciting conversions is Soho House Berlin, complete with hotel and pool, which is due to open early next year in the "Big House", the former headquarters of the SED, the Socialist Unity Party. The politics may be gone forever, but the form is back in fashion. Here's where you can see it.