Bauakademie

Berlin, Germany
Competition Entry, Honorable Mention, 2018

As an alternative to the reconstruction of its facade, we are proposing the development of the Bauakademie as a three-dimensional space frame. Schinkel envisioned the Bauakademie as a frame construction, which was radical and groundbreaking for his time. However, due to the technological and regulatory constraints, he was unable to fully realize the building as such. Our pre-cast concrete space frame which operates as an inhabitable “building shell” is based on Schinkel`s 5.5m grid. Like a gradient its cross-shaped members get ever more slender towards the center of the building where they form an infrastructural frame for lights, projectors, screens, models and other elements. The spaces along the building`s perimeter are spatially framed by the deep flanges of the enlarged cross-shaped columns and beams.