Hansjörg Göritz  Studio

< Chronicles

December 2015

Desiging next to Mies -

The Museum of the 20th Century Berlin

 

Close to thirty years on after our then young studio's design of an entry for a German History Museum, we again chose to design for one the nation's imprints in Berlin's metropolitan fabric. As part of it for almost fifty years, the Kulturforum Berlin is in the limelight as a most iconic and challenging design context to work in. The New York Times describes it 'A World War and Clashing Architecture Foil a German Arts District'. The German Government and the Berlin Senat chose its open center as the site for the Museum of the 20th Century to display world renowned post 1945 modern art collections from the repositories of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Like all contestants', our entry into an international design competition operates in the vicinity of Mies' New National Gallery, Scharoun's Berlin Philharmonic and Chamber Music Halls, and across from his Federal Library, all imprints of bygone post war urban and architecture ideals. In this context, this time it is a master plan design that rightfully transitions into the design for a state-of-the-art museum. Designing right next to the gallery as one Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's most important icons was a benchmark for appropriateness in both architecture and urban terms. Results will be announced in late February 2016.

 

Article

The New York Times Report Europe Berlin Journal