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Modern architecture on the Spreebogen – the new Federal Chancellery
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200,000 square metres of wall and ceiling area coated
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| The Spreebogen on the northern edge of the Tiergarten, which has recently become the site of the parliament and government of the Federal Republic, has always been a sought-after part of Berlin. During the middle of the 19th century it rose from being a night-life district to become a diplomatic quarter. The extension plans of the Nazis ended in the rubble of the Second World War and the building of the Wall turned it into a dead zone. The fall of the Wall opened up new prospects for the area. With the decision of the Bundestag to move the seat of government to Berlin, it came into consideration as the location for the new buildings for the government and parliament. |
The "Federal Band"
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Not quite one decade later, the quarter has taken shape. It is dominated by the Federal Chancellery with the nine-storey cube of the administration building. When asked about the monumentality of the building, the architect Axel Schultes countered that the building structure stands in a balanced relationship to the Reichstag and that it would find it difficult in the end to assert itself against the mighty building structure of the new Lehrter Bahnhof, the railway station. Together with Charlotte Frank, Schultes had drafted an overall city-planning concept for the Spreebogen, titled "Band des Bundes" (Federal Band) and had then prevailed over renowned competitors in an international competition. The band extended from the Moabiter Werder in the West to the former Luisen- and Dorotheenstadt in the East.
One year later Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank also came out on top in the architectural competition for the building of the Federal Chancellery. With their plan the architects want to cross boundaries between the east and west parts of the city, governing and those governed, people outside and inside. They put transparency and openness at the top of the list. Schultes commented on the plan with the words: "The circular, perforated, first shell of the Chancellery is not just intent on giving space to the hard confrontation of inside and outside, but rather to ensure at first sight popular support for the seat of government." By putting up a bridge between the East and West parts of Berlin, they put the onus on the chancellery, also politically. |
The third way
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On a fleeting encounter the building structure appears solid and sharp-edged. The 36 metre high administration building with the office of the chancellor, the workrooms for the ministers of state, two cabinet rooms and a conference room are flanked by two five-floor administration wings which stretch out longitudinally. The frontages on the east side form the reception area for greeting state visitors and on the west side the chancellery garden which is bordered by the River Spree. The chancellery park an the opposite bank of the river connects to the group of buildings via a bridge.
The customer for this ambitious project is the Bundesbaugesellschaft Berlin (the federal building company in Berlin), in whose hands the management of the Reichstag conversion already lay and which again proved its capabilities. The construction of the chancellery started in January 1997. At the topping out ceremony on 22nd October 1999, the architect Schultes said he wanted his project to be understood as being beyond tradition and the dull taste of style, as a third way, which with spatial abundance and material simplicity, expresses the duties and hopes of public office from the arduous necessity of daily compromises through to the more historical dimension.
These ambitions are reflected in generosity and elegance when dealing with area and space. In this connection the foyer, rising over two and a half floors, gives a foretaste. The wave-shaped ceiling gives it impetus and just a touch of lightness. Sweeping ceilings are just as much part of the reservoir of design elements as concrete walls with trumpet-type terminations, truncated conical stairs and reinforced concrete columns. At many points the strict straight arrangement of the building structure is dispersed by sweeping curves and steps or audacious clefts. Thus, concave and convex parts interchange in the circular stairs system, ceilings with bearers allow coves to arise, inner patios with evergreen trees breathe life into the office world at the feet of the central administration. |
Return to Nature
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Reinforced concrete is the material from which the chancellery is made. As well, natural stone, glass and wood are the preferred building materials. The creamy coloured natural stone, with which the facade is clad, takes from the concrete its unbending rigour and impact and the cycloids – large semi-circular windows – open up the facades outwards, as do the conservatories. Fair-faced concrete dominates below the roofs. Original grey stands next to matt white. The incoming light falls on it and on green doors, cherrytree-coloured wooden surfaces or coloured floor coverings.
About 200,000 square metres of ceiling and wall areas were painted with the emission-minimised and solvent-free interior paint, Indeko-plus. After the application of wash primer, a pigmented priming paint, the ceiling coating followed with the matt-drying and abrasion resistant interior paint, which in its visual effect takes into account the high demands of modern architecture. The subdued colour scheme contributes in showing the space and surfaces in the right light as well as enabling the architecture to be directly experienced. |
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