In The Top Of Berlin
On Foster’s renovation of the Reichstag building
In the world of architecture one of the most significant events in 1999 was awarding Sir Norman Foster the prestigious Pritzker Prize for an architectural effort of more than 30 years of inventive and progressive buildings. The most specific about the practice of Foster being his combination of advanced technology, optimized construction, masterly detailing, minimized energy consumption and maximum symbolic value. All these aspects are characterizing his German masterpiece in Berlin – in corporation with Kühn Bauer & Partner and Kaiser Bautecknik – namely the renovation of the parliament building as a commission resulting from an architectural competition.
The somewhat massive building had been left as a ruin for more than half a century not fairly judged as a symbol for the Third Reich and the misdeeds of that regime – even though Hitler only came to power with a coup d’etat by masterminding the fire of the parliament building back in 1933. So after the reunion of West and East Germany in 1989 a mayor problem aroused in creating a clean and proper symbol for the new democracy in this heavy historical context.
In his renovation project Foster aimed at more lightness by the use of a mayor glass cupola topping and contradicting the heavy building mass beneath. Besides he made use of this new skylight for proving daylight to the assembly room, while at the same time securing public access to the panoramic view over the metropolis from the top of the parliament. In fact no more central and eminent view is given anywhere in the city, while public access provides an excellent symbol of the public being more important than the politicians by staying over and controlling them. Somewhat like the Australian Parliament in Canberra. So in the case of Berlin the public cupola has in a short period of time become the main tourist attraction of the city – like the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The glazed cupola is hovering some 17 meters above the roof of the plenary assembly and some 25 meters above ground level. Inside the cupola two independent ramps are leading to the summit, one meant as the access way the other meant for leaving the panoramic view of the city. While the construction for this is extremely minimalist and probably the best piece of work ever done by Foster at this moment.
The cupola itself is remaining unheated while in fact open for natural ventilation to all sides and open in the very top. In the centre of the cupola a conic-concave central load-bearing body is clad with 360 mirrors placed at different special angles to reflect diffuse daylight down to the meeting room below. All of which in the end reduce the need for artificial lightening. When experienced from the assembly room the ceiling looks like a kaleidoscopic mirror of the view to the sky.
A moveable shield inside the cupola prevents directly incoming sun glare, so even daylight at lower levels do never disturb the politicians at work. Fresh air is supplied from a separate storage floor beneath the assembly room, but for security reasons the intake of air is located at the top of the building. Even the building massive is used for equalizing fluctuations in day and season temperatures.
The parliament building itself is provided with an independent power station supplying electricity and heating plus cooling for this and other government buildings nearby. Due to estimates the prospect is a net surplus of heat to be deposed in a subterranean reservoir 400 metres under terrain. Foster has also recommended the use of alternative energy sources to obtain a lower CO2 emission or a reduced expense by using natural gas.
In any circumstances the energy conscious building improvements means saving down to one tenth of a similar building of this size built before 1995.
Flemming Skude
More on foster see:fosterandpartners.com
Source: The Architectural Journal, February 25th, 1999, p.70-71.
