Executive Authority - German Chancellery building in Berlin

Architectural Review, The, August, 2001 by Layla Dawson

The hugely controversial German Chancellery has opened in Berlin. Is it too grandiose and formal a figure for a modern pluralist democracy? Has a brilliant design been compromised by the demands of security and economy?

For Germany's new Berlin Republic, Chancellor Kohl wanted his Chancellery to be 'the nation's calling card'. Now, following Kohl's election defeat, Gerhard Schroder will occupy an office suite, alongside those of his ministers, in an eyrie above 370 lesser offices (manned by 500 civil servants), two cabinet rooms, an EU conference room, banqueting hall, press facilities, library, security offices, 50 workshops including a print works, restaurant, fitness centre, bunker, car park and 13 glazed winter gardens.

In 1993 Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank won the overall planning competition for Berlin's new government district. Their concept was for a 'Band des Bundes', a strip of federal government buildings crossing the arc of the river Spree, symbolically linking the two former German states and the divided city. It began in the East with the Reichstag (AR July 1999) and encompassed three administrative buildings (Paul-Lobe-Haus, Marie-Elisabeth-Luders-Haus and Jakob-Kaiser-Haus), ending in the West with the Chancellery.

In the subsequent competition a year later for the Chancellery, Schultes and Frank came joint first with Kruger/Schuberth/Vandreike. Chancellor Kohl, who believed democracy to be an inept commissioner of architecture, promptly took matters into his own hands and appointed Schultes and Frank. Advised by Gustav Peichl, he maintained a close interest in design decisions.

The Chancellery was to be only one element in the 'Band des Bundes' laced through by public gardens. Security has defeated this intention with the erection of palisade fences. Strangely enough, the northern flank beside the Spree is open for state arrivals by boat, and a public promenade runs alongside the unfortified employees' restaurant. Nevertheless, although now only accessible to statesmen and civil servants, the oriental flavour of the Chancellery plan - a chequered pattern of landscaped courts and halls linked by semi-open corridors, footbridges and tiered roof terraces - is still discernible.

The core building (housing the politicians), and the north and south administrative wings (housing their civil servants), form three sides of a ceremonial courtyard facing the Reichstag. Within this stone paved high security area, an illusion of openness has been attempted using green mounds to break up the view of the boundary fence. Eduardo Chillida's sculpture stands to the side of the white awning floating over the grand entrance. Limousines enter stage right, having passed the oval gate house on the north side with its waiting room for political correspondents.

A series of free-standing white concrete columns frame and furnish the entrance, acting as backdrops for displays of international protocol. Huge pear trees sit on top of some of the columns; others are planted with moss which will gradually creep down the sides. In the Prussian bleakness of Berlin, the overwhelming impression is of an Arabian fairytale palace. The tensioned awning over the entrance mirrors the sweeping curved underside of the white concrete roof. The mannerist forms have a plastic quality, unfolding to reveal a hierachy of spaces that lead up and into the inner sanctum. Visitors are sifted through the perforated veil of the facade, up a sweeping staircase, past a press conference room, and on upwards to the meeting rooms, banqueting hall, or Chancellor's office. The sensual lines of the interior, with its waves of white ceiling, snaking balustrades and seamless panelling, contrast oddly with the Chancellery's external orthogonality. Top lights and side windows flood the building with dayligh t from unexpected angles. The higher you rise, the lighter and airier the spaces.

As with his 1992 Bonn Art Museum (AR January 1993), Schultes makes a circular stairwell the focus of a flowing, informal promenade area spread over three floors.

Fifth, sixth and seventh levels are connected through this eye-of-a-needle device. The fifth floor expands on to a generous roof terrace looking across to the Reichstag. Here, like stage curtains, the free-standing columns hide or reveal statesmen and cityscape. Sixth and seventh floors have stepped balconies so that guests can survey each other. Four side walls will exhibit art on loan from Berlin collections. Within what is essentially an office building, Schultes has created sculptural scenography out of interstitial space. The effect is totally theatrical.

Regardless of status, interiors are uniformally lined with green metal panels or beech veneer, with white undulating ceilings. In his suite, the Chancellor sits in front of a convex wall. To his left he can see the Reichstag and to his right the colossal Lehrter station building site, all through 180mm of bullet-proof glazing. Until an official residence is built, he will also have an apartment on the eighth floor with its own private terraces. On the sixth floor, the banqueting hall runs from east to west of the core block with access to the roof terrace. The two cabinet rooms have reduced window areas and the circular first floor conference room for European Union meetings, with its dropped convex ceiling, has only high level glazing and no external views.