The new embassy for The Netherlands is located on the Rolandufer in what was the earliest settlement of Berlin. Before the wall divided the city the Berlin-Mitte district was the heart of the capital. Throughout the cold war this area became the government district for the DDR. Shortly after the wall came down, in 1989, the German government decided to relocate the Bundestag back to Berlin. After 1999, when the government has moved from Bonn to its new location, Berlin-Mitte will become the centre of government administration in Germany again.
In the program of demands the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
requested a solitaire building, clearly visible as a different entity
in its urban environment. The zoning demanded a closing off of the traditional
Berlin Block for this location. Another wish was the expression of 'Dutch
openness'.
in the building. In order to answer both wishes and deal with the local
authorities, the concept was shaped into a glass cube on a socle: a solitaire
but with a connection to the existing neighbouring building on the west.
The solution to the conflict between perimeter block and free-standing
building is found in the combination of the two. By concentrating the
building mass in the form of a cube there is sufficient space excavated
to consider the embassy a villa.
In order to activate the entire volume of the embassy , one continuous promenade, the trajectory, meanders through the eight level building. It is a singular spatial element excavated out of a cube of generic office floors and workspaces. From the street-level entry to the roof terrace the trajectory links the collective 'public' spaces of the embassy by means of ramps and stairs.
The embassy creates its own context : against the existing firewall surrounding the site, apartments for embassy staff form a theatrical backdrop to the cube. The building is separated from its surroundings by an access road along the rear edge, a drop off area on a socle that can be read as an internal court and a park.
The direction and organisation of the trajectory is based on visual relationships with the surroundings, the River Spree, the omnipresent TV Tower, the park, the apartments. Orientation to the city outside is always possible. It is even possible to see diagonally through the building from the park on the south by means of the sliding trajectory. Where the trajectory reaches the facade it interferes with the regular rhythm of mullions. Here the facade is of non-reflective glass. Glass load bearing mullions carry the facade and support the apparently floating viceambassador's apartment above.
The spaces of the embassy can be divided into two groups: public and private. The public and communal spaces are placed along the trajectory while the private offices lie between trajectory and facade. Common spaces, like conference facilities and meeting rooms where visitors can meet with embassy officials, which are used by more than one department are located in the public zone of the trajectory.
The embassy is a ductless building; all services are integrated
into the architecture. The pressurised trajectory acts as a duct. Fresh
air migrates into the offices through openings in the structural walls
and into the negatively pressured facade plenum.
The walls separating the trajectory from the workspaces have a double
function: on the one hand they become part of the structural system, and
on the other to accommodate support functions of pantry, storage, toilets
and copy rooms.
On the 2nd
and 3rd levels the promenade follows along the entire width of the Klosterstraße
facade, acting as a gallery to the street and river. On the west facade
VIP room cantilevers out from the building like a pulpit above the internal
court.
15.11.2003 - 20.01.2004
Eine Ausstellung der Neuen Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, und dem Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Netherlands Architecture Institute und dem Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie.
Rem Koolhaas zählt zu den weltweit meist diskutierten Architekten und Architekturtheoretikern der Gegenwart. Die Ausstellung in der oberen Halle der Neuen Nationalgalerie bietet einen umfassenden Überblick über die innovativen Entwürfe und Projekte seines Büros „Office for Metropolitan Architecture“ (OMA) in den Bereichen Architektur, Design, Theorie und Städtebau seit den 1990er Jahren. Bislang unveröffentlichte Projekte nehmen dabei großen Raum ein. In 20 offen miteinander vernetzten Ausstellungsstationen werden themengebunden multimediale Installationen in Zusammenarbeit mit namhaften bildenden Künstlern gezeigt – so die Inszenierung des Traktats „Junkspace“ von Koolhaas durch Tony Oursler. Verschiedene Architekturmodelle werden in mehreren thematischen Sektionen (z.B. Hochhäuser, Museumsprojekte, Wohnhausbauten) sowie in neuartiger Darstellungsform präsentiert. Filminstallationen, ein Film-Archiv und ein neues Konzept des Museumsshops vervollständigen das ungewöhnliche Ausstellungskonzept.
Eintritt: 6 Euro, ermäßigt 3 Euro; Kombiticket der Ausstellungen
Rem Koolhaas, Anarchie in der Kunst und Gerd Rohling 10 Euro, ermäßigt
5 Euro
Veranstalter:
Neue Nationalgalerie, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Netherlands
Architecture Institute
Neue Nationalgalerie
Kulturforum, Potsdamer Straße 50
Berlin - Tiergarten
Verkehrsverbindungen:
U-/S-Bhf. Potsdamer Platz Bus 129, 142, 148, 248, 341, 348
Öffnungszeiten:
So 11:00 - 18:00
Mo -
Di 10:00 - 18:00
Mi 10:00 - 18:00
Do 10:00 - 22:00
Fr 10:00 - 18:00
Sa 11:00 - 18:00
archined.nl