ARCH 26
SUGGESTION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE COLLAPSED SUSPENDED CANOPY OF BERLIN'S CONVENTION CENTRE (DIE "SCHWANGERE AUSTER")
Architectural concept Visit to the site and open letter to the Lord Mayor of the City of Berlin, Dietrich Stobbe
Vienna - Berlin, 1980
On the invitation of Aedes, Galerie für Architektur und Raum, Berlin, who asked architects and artists for their ideas for the convention centre which was erected in 1957/58 as a contribution of the U.S. to the "Internationale Bauaustellung 1957" (Interbau) and which collapsed on May 21, 1980.
mehr weniger- Das Hundertwasser Haus, Vienna, 1985, p. 132 (b)
- R. Schediwy, Hundertwassers Häuser, Vienna, 1999, p. 244
- A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, p. 1207 (c)
- Hundertwasser Architektur, Cologne, 2006, p. 311
Hundertwasser's comment on the work
"... the partial collapse of the Conference Hall and the world of forms which has come about through an act of God is a gift which we accept with gratitude. Here precious non-regulated irregularities were created which constitute an urgently needed opposite pole to the rational architecture which there is far too much of, as it is. (...) For this reason the present state of ruin should be carefully and conscientiously preserved, accentuated and stabilised by means of construction measures. The structure must be bolstered by beautiful columns so that it is strong enough to bear a wildly growing forest on the roof."
(excerpt from a letter to the Lord Mayor of Berlin, Dietrich Stobbe, of October 1980, in: Das Hundertwasser Haus, Vienna, 1985, p. 132f.)