Federal Ministry

Berlin, Germany

Photo © Stefan Müller

Architects: Max Dudler

Location: Invalidenstraße 27–29, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Year: 2005
Client: Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung (BBR)
Building period: GFA 57.700 m²
Volume: 1997–2005
Procedure: Competition 1996, 1st Prize

This project to create the new premises for the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development in Invalidenstrasse, Berlin, involved restoring, converting and extending the erstwhile State Geological Institute and Mining Academy, designed by Georg Tiede, and gave rise to a sophisticated architectonic equilibrium between old and new. An ensemble laden with suspense is created by setting the two new buildings at a slight angle to the old building. The architectural idiom and urban design setting for the new buildings along the canal were developed in analogy to Schinkel’s Building Academy by the Spree. The courtyard typology of Tiede’s Mining Academy is transformed into a contemporary vernacular in the architecture deployed for the extensions. Reflecting this, the interior of the new building incorporates reinterpretations of spatial typologies such as the historical atrium.