The Kulturforum -
A Crime of Urban Planning?

With its buildings by Mies van der Rohe, Hans Scharoun and Rolf Gutbrod, the Kulturforum is a veritable open-air museum of Modernist architecture. The immediate vicinity is also home to important examples of avant-garde architecture from the 20th century, such as the Shell building by Emil Fahrenkamp overlooking the Landwehrkanal (opened in 1932) and the blue-and-pink-striped Wissenschaftszentrum by James Stirling (opened in 1988). The Kulturforum is also home to significant collections on the history of architecture and design, both at the Kunstbibliothek and the Kunstgewerbemuseum. All this makes it an ideal location for addressing contemporary themes related to architecture, particularly since this location also finds itself in the headlines every so often, decried as a “concrete wasteland” and an “eternal construction site”.

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Construction site of the New National Gallery 1967.

© Wikimedia Commons / Manfred Niermann (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Aerial view of Kemperplatz with the construction site of the Kunstgewerbemuseum in 1978. When it opened in 1985, the brutalist architecture by Rolf Gutbrod was criticised as no longer up to date and the architectural office of Hilmer & Sattler und Albrecht was assigned to the development of the ensemble.

© bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Reinhard Friedrich

Report on the opening of the Kunstbibliothek, 1994.

© RBB / SpätAbendschau "Eröffnung der Kunstbibliothek" (Sendung vom 31.01.1994)

Black plan for the development of the Kulturforum area in 1989, on the left the outlines of the Kunstgewerbemuseum (opened in 1985), the entrance hall, the Kupferstichkabinett and the Kunstbibliothek (opened in 1994).

© Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung

Report on the opening of the Gemäldegalerie, 1998.

© RBB / Berliner Abenschau "Besucheransturm auf die Gemäldegalerie" (Sendung vom 05.07.1998)

The aesthetics of the Piazzetta, designed by artist Heinz Mack in 1984, unfolds in a bird's eye view.

© bpk / Florian Profitlich

The Kulturforum - sin or blessing? What is your opinion?

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Aerial view of the Kulturforum (built 1978-98). In 1990, the "museum controversy" flared up over the last construction phase of the Gemäldegalerie (rear left) - critics demanded binging together the painting and sculpture collections on the Museum Island.

© bpk / Jürgen Hohmuth
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