An Opportunity for Younger Architecture Offices

Entitled “The Museum of the 20th Century and its Integration into the Urban Environment” the ideas competition was held to clarify how the new museum building and its immediate surroundings could be designed; especially from the perspective of urban and open space planning.

The goal of the ideas competition was to acquire information for the scope and framework of the subsequent project competition. Based on the results, the SPK set additional urban and open space planning parameters for the design competition. And between 10 and 20 prizewinners would be eligible to take part in the design competition. So the ideas competition also gave architects who had not yet planned or constructed a large museum or similar building the opportunity to take part in a design competition.

All entries were submitted anonymously and they received a code number before being evaluated in the preliminary examination © SPK / lindner-fotograf.de
All entries were submitted anonymously and they received a code number before being evaluated in the preliminary examination © SPK / lindner-fotograf.de

How Was the Preliminary Document Review Carried Out?

The ideas competition was announced on September 3, 2015. A total of 460 teams of architects and landscape architects submitted their designs and models by mid-December 2015. The experts and competition organizers carried out the preliminary document review in January 2016.

The submitted documents were checked for completeness and plausibility. However, no entries were rejected during the preliminary review—this was reserved for the jury alone. The members of the jury were not allowed to participate in the preliminary review—they saw the designs for the first time at the jury meeting.

Enrique Sobejano, Roger Diener, Arno Lederer, Heike Hanada, Monika Grütters and Hermann Parzinger during the jury meeting
Enrique Sobejano, Roger Diener, Arno Lederer, Heike Hanada, Monika Grütters and Hermann Parzinger during the jury meeting © SPK / photothek.net / Thomas Koehler

460 Submissions – 10 Winners

The jury met from February 8 to 10, 2016. It consisted of seven expert judges and six procedural judges.

The jury reviewed all submitted designs. In the first round of judging, one vote was sufficient to advance a design to the next round. In the subsequent rounds, each entry required a majority vote to advance. The jury therefore had to be present in full at all times. Furthermore, voting was compulsory: abstentions were not permitted. This process resulted in a shortlist of entries. Finally, the ranking was determined and the winners were selected. The jury selected ten winners in the ideas competition.

All of the ideas competition participants submitted models along with their designs
All of the ideas competition participants submitted models along with their designs © SPK / photothek.net / Thomas Koehler

Offices from 40 Nations

The 460 offices that took part in the competition come from a total of 40 nations from all parts of the world. A little more than half of the offices are in Germany. Many teams come from Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Austria, Great Britain, France, Portugal, the USA, China and the Netherlands. Shared offices from Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Slovenia, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Albania, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Greece, India, Ireland, Japan, Croatia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Moldova, Peru, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus also took part.

© the designers / lindner-fotograf.de

460 Solutions for the Kulturforum

Along with their designs, all of the participating shared offices submitted a model on a scale of 1:500.

The video clip shows how the submitted models look in relation to the surrounding buildings when they are placed in the model of the Kulturforum.

The designs ranged from towering structures to buildings that extended into the ground. A wide variety of design forms were explored: round, angular, egg-shaped, fragmented, delicate, and massive. In some cases, the entire construction site was covered with a single building, in others only one side, while some structured the site with multi-part buildings.

The ideas competition exhibition showed all the submitted designs and models
The ideas competition exhibition showed all the submitted designs and models © SPK / photothek.net / Thomas Koehler

The Exhibition

All of the designs and models in the ideas competition were displayed at the Kulturforum from February 26 to March 13, 2016.

At the opening of the exhibition on February 25, 2016, Udo Kittelmann, Director of the Nationalgalerie, Arno Lederer, chairman of the jury, Regula Lüscher, Senate Building Director of the State of Berlin and Jürgen Tietz, architecture critic, took part in a panel discussion entitled “Enough Ideas for the Kulturforum?” Claudia Henne from Radio Berlin-Brandenburg moderated the exchange related to the competition entries and the Kulturforum’s situation.