Curved walls, lots of concrete and an ingenious color scheme: after long deliberations about demolishing the Charité Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology in Lichterfelde, the Berlin State Monuments Office has now placed the brutalist building under a preservation order It’s now official: the Berlin State Monuments Office has placed the Charité Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology in Lichterfelde under […]
Curved walls, lots of concrete and an ingenious color concept: after long deliberations about the demolition of the Charité Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology in Lichterfelde, the Berlin State Monuments Office has now placed the brutalist building under a preservation order
It is now official: the Berlin State Monuments Office has placed the Charité Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology in Lichterfelde under a preservation order. The brutalist building was designed by the well-known architects Hermann Fehling and Daniel Gogel as a research and educational building between 1969 and 1974 and was commissioned by the Free University of Berlin.
Together with the nearby Steglitz Clinic – today the main building of the Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin, built in 1961-68, a listed building since 2012 – and the now decommissioned Central Animal Laboratories opposite, also known as the Mouse Bunker, built in 1971-81, it forms a unique group of more recent research and healthcare buildings on the Teltow Canal.
The Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin, particularly appreciates the very well-preserved interior fittings and the exterior wall of the building. By using expressive forms, Fehling + Gogel, important representatives of the Berlin “Scharoun School”, created sculptural-looking figures that reflect and support the use of the interior. The handling of the deliberately staged concrete is also of high quality. The building, which belongs to the Brutalist architectural style, is therefore a listed building for artistic, historical and urban planning reasons.
State Conservator Dr. Christoph Rauhut expressed his enthusiasm: “This institute is a total work of art, a building of international standing and a significant contribution to the ‘organic’ and ‘brutalist’ architecture of post-war modernism!”
“The Berlin Institute of Hygiene, founded by Robert Koch in 1885, is part of Berlin’s history. Without the research work carried out here, Berlin would never have become a city of millions. In addition to the modern institute building, the preservation order that has now been issued also honors the long and beneficial work of Berlin hygiene science,” said Prof. Dr. Axel Radlach Pries, Dean of Charité, and is looking forward to developing a life science campus here together with partners such as Freie Universität Berlin.
The recognition of the monument also goes hand in hand with Charité’s commitment to its location in south-west Berlin. In December 2020, a competitive dialog process was launched for the urban development planning of the entire Benjamin Franklin Campus, including the Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology and the so-called Mouse Bunker.
Pioneering architectural approaches are to reflect Charité’s international excellence in research and treatment, while at the same time constructively engaging with the historical heritage, which is of great architectural and cultural significance. The Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing, the Senate Chancellery – Science and Research, the Berlin State Monuments Office and the Steglitz-Zehlendorf District Office are involved in this process.
However, the future of the former Central Animal Laboratories remains uncertain. Possible potential uses are to be examined as part of a model project currently being prepared to accompany the multi-stage, competitive dialog process.
