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2012 UK Award Part 1
Remember Berlin: Kunsthochschule Archipelago

Paddi Alice Benson
University of Cambridge

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Somf uk award paddi alice benson 09 2012

Programmatic Research: Cultural Arcapellago. The building redefines the Southern perimeter of Museumsinsels and contains a garden which connects East and West Berlin. The non-hierarchic departamental archipelago within the Art School articulates individual and collective identity, mirroring the cultural context to the north. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Jury
Sarah Itchioka
Kent Jackson
Alan Stanton


Chaotic Berlin: a city simultaneously burying history and memorializing guilt, in which the best of its past is obscured by the global anonymity of the present. The disintegration of the city and its culture was anticipated and contextualized by Hermann Broch in his trilogy The Sleepwalkers (1936). This describes the fragmentation of the universal belief in one law and one morality, which was reflected in the civic order. Retracing Broch’s steps backwards the proposed Kunsthochschule project reclaims Berlin’s specific spatial and building typologies. Every urban space enjoys a dual identity: from the building which addresses it and as a part of the spatial armature which embraces the city. Civic homogeneity is derived from the Berlin ‘double block’ and its ability to accommodate spatial diversity - residential, office, department store, school and factory. The block can be reinterpreted with improvised inhabitation which side-steps conventional functional demarcations.

The proposed new building was informed by these two typologies, which reinforce spatial identity and operational adaptability. Spatially, it redefines the southern perimeter of the Lustgarten and Unter den Linden - the primary route between east and west Berlin. The building creates and contains a garden which links the park extending to Alexanderplatz, Schinkel’s Bauakademie to the west and Breite Straße, to the south.

Spatial typologies as part of the spatial armature which embraces the city. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 02 2012

The Schlossplatz—historic center of Berlin—is currently a Lacuna. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 03 2012

The non-hierarchic departmental archipelago within the Kunsthochschule (Art School) articulates individual and collective identity, and mirrors the cultural ensemble of museums and galleries to the north of the site. Conceptually, the building is porous and carved from a single solid by light, similar to its Renaissance ancestor, the Villa Guilia, which also negotiates a series of levels within its walls. Directly accessible from the social, display and performance spaces, the garden would be used for theatre, film and sculpture. On entering, the building’s solidity dissolves, and the visitor is mysteriously connected to the garden. South-lit from above, the three-dimensional cloister visually unites the departments and becomes the heart of the school. This is surrounded by the four islands; fine art (north), project galleries (east), display and sculpture (south/garden), and library-communal resource (addressing Schinkel to the west).

The proposed Kunsthochschule defines the southern perimeter of the Lustgarten and Unter der Linden—the primary route between East and West Berlin—and completes de square addressing Shinkel's Altes Museum and the cultural ensemble of museums and galleries to the north of the site. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 04 2012

Cross section. The double block redefines the Lunstgarten and encloses a garden to the south, which addresses the park to the east and Schinkel's Bauakademie to the west. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 06 2012

Site model. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 01 2012

Cross section. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 05 2012

Inhabited wall dissolved by light. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 07 2012

Kunsthochschule Garten. Connection from Breite Straße to Unter den Linden and the city. © Paddi Alice Benson.

Somf uk award paddi alice benson 08 2012
Somf uk award paddi alice benson headshot 2012

Paddi Alice Benson
University of Cambridge

Paddi Alice Benson

grew up in London, with Scottish and Irish heritage informing her culture. She hopes to explore in the next stage of her architectural education how the issues encountered in her study of Berlin, “…could be challenged and have evolved in the culturally distinct context of London.” Her SOM Foundation Traveling Fellowship Award will be used to investigate how the social and urban dilemma confronting her generation has been addressed in 18th century Bath, Edinburgh, and Dublin, 19th century Paris, Barcelona, Chicago, and New York. These visits will take place between the end of her year out and the commencement of her Part 2 Course of study at Cambridge.

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