Depots and Workshops of the Berlin State Museums

Berlin-Friedrichshagen

in cooperation with Prof. Sill Architekten

The location of the planning site on the edge of the Berlin State Forest has been adopted as an idea essential to the project. A bird's eye view reveals, stamped into the carpet of the forest, the oval of the sports clearing with its sports ground along with the square of the culture clearing containing the state library and the storage buildings of the state museums -two clearings, surrounded by thick forest, through which the buildings are scarcely visible from the outside.
The high-rise development of the buildings steps downwards towards the residential constructions to the east. The high-rise line, however, does not exceed the treetops, so the impression of forest remains the defining element.

The storage buildings comprise two units of construction: the depots (largely closed off) and the transparent slab of the function centre. With a view to maximum climate buffering, the covering of the depot buildings is formed as a two-layer facade consisting of a massive inner wall and an outer construction of timber. Because of construction and maintenance costs as well as considerations involving functionality, energy and technical safety, only two compact construction units are proposed. These provide a maximum volume of space using the minimum of surface area
The choice of material for the outer cladding completes the circle of the ecological concept. Set in an expanse of forest, the timber-clad depots create a unity of form together with the surrounding trees: trees and log-style façade bring out the best in each other -both buildings and nature creating a symbiosis.