Radiate
Urban and architecture design for Federal Office for Radiation Protection
- Category
- Architecture, Urbanism
- Year
- 2012
- Location
- Berlin DE
- Size
- 2ha
- Program
- 5,000m2 office and facilities, garden and public square
- Client
- Bundesambt fur Strahlenschutz, Bundesambt fur Immobilienaufgaben, Bundesambt fur Bauwesen und Raumordnung
- Colaboration
- Arons en Gelauff, Hosper Landscape Architecture
Campus of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection shrinks to one third of its size. Not surprisingly, the other two thirds of the site were to be developed into new residences. An important state institution joins Berlin’s booming real-estate market.
What are the the means to reinforce and emphasize the relevance of an essential scientific institutions in an ever more profit-driven social context? How to deal with the impotence of such kind of program to integrate into the established marketable patterns of spatial development? How to give the institute an address in the city? Be critical about the lack of identity it was allowed? Best trade the abundance of space it consumed?
Concept proposes a public square on the plot of the campus. The square elevates the quality of the public space to a new level. It is a gift to the neighbors! It creates a new gravity point. A place that inspires the exchange between the communities from both sides of the fence, resulting in a seamless integration of the campus into the context.
Instead of a low intensity, no identity urban condition, the campus should iconize its new compact body. It should trade the sheer space for meaning! Stop forgetting about the importance of the representation. It should challenge its functional aspects to another level of intensity. Use the resulting increased building density to become visible.