Silencio Opens a Pop-Up Club in Berlin's Former Watergate

For almost two years, the rooms above the Spree next to Berlin's Oberbaum Bridge have been dark. Watergate, one of the city's best-known clubs, played its last party at the end of 2024 and gave up the lease. Now there is a new tenant, at least for a while. Silencio, the Paris club designed by David Lynch, will run a pop-up in the former Watergate space from 30 October 2026 until May 2027. Resident Advisor and Groove reported the plan on 10 September 2026, one day after a pre-opening night with Richie Hawtin, Ben Klock, BASHKKA and Valentina Magaletti.

On paper, it is a simple story: an empty club gets used again. The more interesting question is what kind of club moves in, and what that says about Berlin in 2026.

What has been announced so far

The project is called Silencio Berlin and marks fifteen years of the Paris original. According to RA, FAZEmag and Berliner Zeitung, the regular programme was due to be announced in October. Groove and DJ Mag Germany report the planned format: each weekend, a different collective is to take over the rooms. Beyond the pre-opening, though, nobody outside the project yet knows who those collectives are or what a ticket costs.

What is known is the look of the place. Studio Karhard, the Berlin studio behind Berghain's interior, designed the rooms. Artist and architect Marc Leschelier made new DJ booths and concrete elements, Studio Raito handles the lighting and Bureau Borsche the visual identity. Groove reports that the floor has been removed to expose the red brick, the upper-floor DJ booth now stands at the window front and the Watergate logo on the outside wall has been painted over. The pop-up is part of Reference Festival, founded by Mumi Haiati, which according to Berliner Zeitung returns with a Paris edition in October, alongside Art Basel Paris.

Founder Arnaud Frisch explained the timing to Mixmag: "Fifteen years is a good moment to celebrate what Silencio has become, and a better one to reinvent it."

What Silencio is, and why it is an unusual fit

Silencio opened in 2011 on Rue Montmartre in Paris. Lynch designed the interior and took the name from Club Silencio, the eerie theatre in Mulholland Drive. The Paris club was never a pure techno room. It works more like a cultural salon: concerts, film screenings and talks, and DJs later in the night. In Paris, the hours before midnight have long been reserved for members and their guests; the public comes in after that. Silencio has since opened in New York and staged pop-ups in places such as Venice, Cannes and Miami.

That is a very different idea from the club it replaces. Watergate stood for long nights, the LED ceiling and the Waterfloor with its view across the river, and for a house and techno programme that drew people from around the world for two decades. Berliner Zeitung put the obvious question in its headline: is the jet set now coming to the Spree? Whether Silencio Berlin copies the Paris membership model is not yet public. Until the door policy and prices are announced, that question stays open. If you want to know what usually decides who gets in, our guide to club door policies covers the basics.

Why Watergate closed in the first place

Watergate announced its closure in September 2024 after 22 years. The operators said they would not renew the lease. Co-founder Ulrich Wombacher named inflation, the energy crisis, rising costs in general and "the high rent for this beautiful location" on the Spree. The club also pointed to a shift in going-out habits, with more people spending their money on big events and festivals instead of regular club nights. The final party ran over New Year's Eve.

Watergate was not the only club under pressure. Salon zur Wilden Renate, a well-known club in neighbouring Friedrichshain, had planned to close for good and was saved only by a new lease signed in December 2025; it reopened in early 2026 after a short break. For a wider look at why famous venues vanish, read our piece on the lost clubs of dance music.

The numbers behind Berlin's club crisis

In summer 2026, the Clubcommission published Club Culture Berlin 2026, its first study of this kind since 2019, together with the Senate Department for Economic Affairs. The key figure: only 61 percent of clubs and event organisers said they at least broke even, down from 79 percent in 2017. That is despite demand: according to the study, 83 percent of respondents still reported at least 50 percent capacity utilisation.

The study also shows how the business model has flipped. In 2017, food and drink made up about 60 percent of revenue and admission 21 percent. Today admission brings in 59 percent and bar sales 20 percent. Clubs now depend on the door far more than on the bar, while staff, energy and rent keep rising. That makes big venues in prime locations especially hard to run.

What this means for the scene

A pop-up does not solve any of this. It runs for seven months, and nothing has been said publicly about what happens to the space after May 2027. Still, there are two ways to read it.

The hopeful reading: a famous room is being used instead of rotting or being turned into offices, and people who shaped Berlin's sound are playing there again.

The sceptical reading: when established clubs can no longer pay the rent, the space goes to players with an international brand, art-world partners and possibly a membership model behind them. That is not the Berlin that made the city's reputation, the one described in our guide to the Berlin techno scene, where cheap space and open doors counted for more than a name.

Both readings can be true at once. The programme due in October will show which one fits better. Watch who gets booked, what tickets cost and whether the door is open to everyone.

Bottom line

From 30 October 2026, the Watergate rooms will host a club night again, but not Watergate. Silencio brings a Paris brand, strong design and a start with big names. Whether it becomes part of Berlin's club life or just a stylish seven-month guest depends on details that have not been announced yet. In a city where almost four in ten clubs no longer break even, even a temporary tenant says a lot.