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Capable of holding more than 20,000 residents, Prora was meant to comfort the weary German worker who toiled away in a factory without respite. According to historian and tour guide Roger Moorhouse, it was also meant to serve as the carrot to the stick of the Gestapo — a pacifying gesture to get the German people on Hitler's side. But then World War II began, and Prora's construction stalled — until now. — Business Insider
Named Prora and located on a beachfront of Rügen island, the structure was commissioned by Adolf Hitler as the world's largest tourist resort three years before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. In those three years over 9,000 workers were involved in the construction of the 2.7-mile-long... View full entry
Until now, architects have had to design around the elevator shafts, which can comprise 40 percent of a building's core. Multi could allow them to install elevators almost anywhere, including the perimeter.
Strong magnets on every Multi car work with a magnetized coil running along the elevator hoistway’s guide rails to make the cars float. Turning these coils on and off creates magnetic fields strong enough to pull the car in various directions.
— Wired
After three years of work, ThyssenKrupp, a company synonymous with elevators, is testing the Multi in a German tower and finalizing the safety certification. Zooming up, down, left, right, and diagonally the new elevator was just sold to a residential building under construction in Berlin, and is... View full entry
The Parthenon of Books in Kassel, Germany is part of the Documenta 14 art festival. With the help of students from Kassel University, Minujín identified over 170 titles that were or are banned in different countries around the world, and constructed the full-size replica of the iconic temple from those books, plastic sheeting, and steel. — Bored Panda
Photo: alexgorlinCreated by Argentinian artist Marta Minujín, 74, the monumental replica of Greek Parthenon consists of 100,000 banned books and symbolizes the resistance to political repression. The Parthenon of Books taking shape in Kassel. Photo by Rosa Ruehling View full entry
The German parliament approved plans to build a Memorial to Freedom and Unity in central Berlin, with an ambitious timetable that envisages the monument’s inauguration on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2019.
Designed by the Stuttgart-based architect Johannes Milla and the Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz, the monument will commemorate the protest movement that toppled the East German communist regime and led to the reunification of Germany in 1990.
— theartnewspaper.com
"The monument is animate and is not to be approached merely as an object for contemplation," Milla & Partner state on their website. "The intention is that people shall actually enter it and walk on it and set it in motion, movement being achieved by visitors working together as a group.""The... View full entry
Repurposing and renovation are some of the hottest new trends in architecture, but architects in Hamburg may have elevated the stakes by their proposal to place a 19-meter high "green mountain" atop a World War II bunker in Hamburg, Germany. The new mountain would offer residents lots to grow... View full entry
[Albert] Speer, Jr., an eighty-two-year-old with a perennially serious expression and a fondness for energetic hand motions, is one of Germany’s best-known urban planners. He has risen to the top of the German planning world over the past fifty years, thanks to his reputation for sustainability and “human scale” architecture, and despite being the son of Hitler’s favorite architect [...]
To his irritation, Speer, Sr., has long cast a shadow over his career.
— the New Yorker
"If Speer, Sr.,’s work was a reflection of the Third Reich’s values, Speer, Jr.,’s is a manifestation of Germany’s postwar identity: a country that has tried to atone for its past by becoming an international advocate for human rights and environmental sustainability, a country that is... View full entry
The Berlin-based studio HENN and the Aarhus-based studio C.F. Møller Architects have jointly won an international competition to design an extension for the University Hospital RWTH Aachen, a historically-listed, high-tech, 1970’s building. The expansion comprises a new building that houses a... View full entry
It's a double-win for UNStudio in a plan to revive the former Deutsche Bank site in Frankfurt, Germany. Almost a year after being selected to design the masterplan, the practice announced today that they also had the winning architectural proposal...The mixed-use project is a key component in reviving the former bank site, which has been closed to the public for nearly 50 years. — Bustler
Take a peek at UNStudio's winning scheme on Bustler. View full entry
After months of antici.............pation, Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie has finally opened, and a slew of luminaries, including Angela Merkel and the architects themselves, were in attendance to celebrate the inaugural concert. The event featured the debut of “Zum Raum wird hier die... View full entry
At nearly 350 square miles, [Berlin is] a difficult city to tour without some guidance. Its vastness is doubly inconvenient for architecture buffs...The [Modern Berlin Map] documents 50 buildings, selected by Berlin-based journalist Matthew Tempest. Unfolded, the front of the guide displays the landmarks on a map of Berlin, while the reverse catalogues the buildings in chronological order. This provides a unique lens through which to track the city’s political shifts. — Wired
Want more travel tips for Berlin? Check out Archinect's Berlin Travel Guide, which features recommendations from Jürgen Mayer H: Let Jürgen Mayer H. help plan your next trip to Berlin with his own travel tips View full entry
It's Day Two at the 2016 World Architecture Festival, which concluded with seven more winners in the Completed Building category and nine Future Projects winners. Now that all the category winners have been revealed, the design teams will face off in one final round of project critiques with the super jury. One project will then be crowned as the Future Project of the Year and another will be the overall-winning World Building of the Year 2016. — Bustler
Here are a few of the Day Two winners.Completed Buildings - SHOPPING: Crystal Houses by MVRDVHIGHER EDUCATION & RESEARCH: Investcorp Building for Oxford University by Zaha Hadid ArchitectsHOTEL AND LEISURE: Fushengyu Hotspring Resort by Aim ArchitectureSPORT: Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre... View full entry
Returning to Berlin after four years in Singapore, the 2016 World Architecture Festival is in full swing. Over 2,000 architects and design enthusiasts flock to the two-day event to watch the live competition unfold before their eyes, as architecture teams go head-to-head to be crowned as... View full entry
After nearly ten years of being put through the ringer of recession and recovery, Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie is finally complete, and slated for its grand opening in January 2017.But before the public gets to bask in Yashuhisa Toyota's acoustic design, anyone can peek inside the... View full entry
Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg will finally welcome its first guests on November 5, following nearly a decade tainted with cost overruns and planning delays. Located in the rapidly developing HafenCity district, the crown-shaped concert hall proudly announced its completion... View full entry
This post is brought to you by BAU 2017. On about 185,000 m2 of exhibition space, BAU will be presenting a display of architecture, materials and systems for commercial and residential construction and interior design, for both new-build and R&M projects. This next edition of the show, which... View full entry
