Archinect - News

Influential German architect Meinhard von Gerkan passes away aged 87

2022-12-05T19:11:00-05:00

One of the more prominent modern German architects of his time is being mourned after news that von Gerkan, Marg + Partners co-founder Meinhard von Gerkan died last week at the age of 87.

Born in Latvia in 1935, von Gerkan grew up in Hamburg after being orphaned in World War II. Following the completion of his studies at the Technical University of Braunschweig, von Gerkan opened the practice known today as gmp with his classmate and business partner Volkwin Marg in 1965. The firm won its first mainstream success with the completion of the beloved (now decommissioned) Berlin Tegel Airport design in 1974 and went on to grow into one of the country’s largest practices, with over 600 staffers and offices in Hamburg, Berlin, Aachen, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hanoi.

Tegel Airport in 2017. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Matti Blume (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Further projects for the Estádio Nacional de Brasília, reconstructed Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, and Leipziger Messe (whic...

gmp to design new urban development in Shenzhen, China

2013-12-19T19:32:00-05:00

Architecture firm von Gerkan, Marg, and Partners won a large commission earlier this week to design a new urban development in Shenzhen, China. The 45-hectare project is part of an economic plan that China developed for the area.

"It comprises a transportation hub including five underground railway stations, a border control point and numerous commercial areas. Above ground there will be a range of tower blocks of different heights with apartments, shops and offices to form multi-functional city quarters."

Images © gmp

von Gerkan, Marg and Partners to Design Tianjin Exhibition Center

2013-03-19T15:15:00-04:00

German architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have won the first prize in the international design competition for the new exhibition center in Tianjin, China. gmp beat out tough competition from Fuksas, HHP, NBBJ/BIAD, and others.

Our questions are critical....

2011-04-13T23:13:04-04:00

Gerkan: This idea of only wanting to work for private individuals is absurd. In a country like China, where does private end and where does government-owned begin? Private citizens turn out to be aligned with the government, or a private developer obtains government financing for his building. For architects like us, this is almost impossible to figure out. Many of those who criticize us are building the five-hundredth high-rise building in China and claim to have integrity. This is a fallacy.

Within two days of the opening of the first exhibition at the newly renovated National Museum of China, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was arrested at the Beijing airport. Der Spiegel recently spoke with Meinhard von Gerkan of the renowned architecture firm gmp in Hamburg, who designed the renovations. Their discussion focuses on the morality of building in modern China. Particularly for a project wherein the government is patron and the site is as historic and politicized as Tiananmen Square.