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| Berlin design project back on track
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A controversial Berlin building project that was abruptly cancelled following political scandal and arguments over the project’s budget, may very soon start up again with a new design team.
Berlin-based architectural practice Heinle, Wischer and Partner have won a public tender for the design of the Nazi documentation centre at the site of the former Gestapo headquarters.
The project, which was being built according to a design by Switzerland’s star architect Peter Zumthor, was already on site when it was cancelled in early 2005.
The two imposing stairwell towers that were to be the focal point of the design were pulled down soon after and the federal government demanded a toned-down version of the design.
The original 39 million euro allotted for the centre’s construction caused a lot of controversy. Zumthor argued that he was working within the allotted budget and that there was a buffer of about 1,5 million euros that could have been used if the project had gone over-budget.
The government insisted that the architectural plans would need to be modified.
“It is clear that Zumthor’s postmodernist constructions do not appeal to many people in the government,” one observer told EJP.
A further complication was that Zumthor’s construction method followed none of the standard building codes, causing endless delay in planning permissions.
Zumthor refused to alter his work and was subsequently fired as head architect, in May 2004.
No self-glorification
The new plans call for a more conventional design – “an unfortunate decision which is making Berlin look very one-sided, architecturally”, EJP’s source continued.
The glass and steel, cube-shaped structure will conform to the shape of the 110-year-old Martin-Gropius-Bau [Martin Gropius was the father of the co-founder of the Bauhaus movement. His own exhibition hall is located on the property adjacent to the documentation centre grounds].
Its cost will not exceed 20 million euros – though initial estimates hover at 15 million – the sum Zumthor spent on the stairwells alone. However, a budget of 24 million Euros has been set aside for the project.
The winning architects declared that their building will not be a “self-glorification of the architects”. The Berlin “Tagesspiegel” newspaper called the current design “modest”.
Rabbi Andrea Nachama, chairman of the documentation centre said that [unlike the Zumthor model] “the current plans should radiate pride and strength without leaping over the bounds of the property line”.
Separate Jewish monument
The centre is being constructed on the grounds of the permanent, outdoor exhibit “Topography of Terror”. The plot was once the Gestapo headquarters [the secret police under the Nazi regime].
In the 1980s, archaeologists uncovered the basement of the former Gestapo palace. Since 1987, the unearthed, open air cells tell the history of the Gestapo and the terror policy of the Nazi regime.
The idea of a central archive for documents surrounding Nazi crimes came about 12 years ago as a way to compliment the open air museum.
But with the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe just half a kilometre away, critics argued that one documentation centre would have been enough.
Jewish groups had been opposed to lumping all Nazi crimes into one centre - preferring that the crime against the Jews be presented as a single phenomenon at the Jewish monument.
Construction of the centre should begin next year. Completion is expected in September 2009, on the 70th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland.
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