Futurium Berlin

Amongst its sur­round­ings in the Gov­ern­ment Dis­trict, the Fu­turium build­ing pro­vides re­fresh­ing variety with its in­ter­est­ing cube-like struc­ture jutting out to the north and the south, ex­pan­sive pro­ject­ing roofs and an en­ve­lope that is partly re­flec­tive, partly trans­par­ent. De­signed by ar­chi­tec­tural firm RICHTER MUSIKOWSKI, the build­ing has been com­plete for two years now, but it only of­fi­cially opened on 5 Sep­tem­ber 2019 – some­times the future is a long time coming. Within a month the suc­cess­ful land­mark had already racked up 100,000 vis­i­tors. The three-part ex­hi­bi­tion ex­plores the future re­la­tion­ship of people with tech­nol­ogy, nature and them­selves. But this build­ing is not meant to be a tra­di­tional museum at all, and the ex­hi­bi­tions are only part of its of­fer­ing. It was de­signed much more as a lab­o­ra­tory, where people can try out fu­tur­is­tic things, and also as a place of di­a­logue, where in­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary debates and dis­cus­sions on burning topics of our future can be held.

The open com­pe­ti­tion for the Fu­turium was the first joint bid for the two ar­chi­tects Christoph Richter and Jan Musikowski, who first met at the Faculty of Res­i­den­tial Build­ings and Design at TU Dresden. They founded their firm after having already won the con­tract and been com­mis­sioned with the build­ing project. Such a young firm is prob­a­bly exactly the right partner for a build­ing that deals with the future – things that do not yet exist. But the cri­te­ria spec­i­fied in the call for tenders ruled out true ex­per­i­ments from the outset.

What does fu­ture-ori­ented ar­chi­tec­ture look like today? In view of rapid climate change, even the latest eco­log­i­cal tech­nolo­gies are in­ad­e­quate and will need to be over­hauled again in the near future. It goes without saying, of course, that the Fu­turium is a nearly zero-en­ergy build­ing, that there is an array of solar panels in­stalled on the roof and that the angled roof col­lects rain­wa­ter for reuse.

Above all, however, it is a struc­ture serving as an ar­chi­tec­tural frame­work, a po­ten­tial home for nar­ra­tives of a future with which no one is yet fa­mil­iar. ‘Ar­chi­tec­ture needs to be able say as much as a picture to those who behold it,’ the young ar­chi­tects argue. They aspire to create ar­chi­tec­tural ex­pe­ri­ences that move people and trigger images in their minds.

Pat­terns play a leading role in this ar­chi­tec­ture. The facade is made up of over 8,000 waffle units that give the struc­ture a vi­su­ally vari­able, trans­par­ent visage by means of folded metal re­flec­tors and ceramic im­printed glass. A square covered in dots leads vis­i­tors to the main en­trances. Dotted steps take them from the wel­com­ing foyer to the upper floor. The ceiling of the dark ex­hi­bi­tion space inside fea­tures a pattern of rows of strip lights.

The ‘Fu­turium Lab’ located on the lower floor like­wise exudes dark­ness from the painted black exposed con­crete and the black mastic asphalt floor, and is also graced by a ceiling pat­terned by a grid of light shades.

The foyer and central point of con­gre­ga­tion on the ground floor, by con­trast, has an airy, open feel about it. Bright sur­faces define the space’s at­mos­phere. The ceiling has been ex­e­cuted as a white, backlit metal grille, the walls have been painted white, and there is bright ter­razzo floor­ing. Day¬light courses through the almost 20-foot-high space. A clear sense of con¬trast is pro­vided by black doors leading in and out and linking the foyer with the ad­join­ing spaces. That they are dark and hence suit­ably con­spic­u­ous is a vital asset in any public build­ing and makes getting around easier for vis­i­tors. This purpose is also served by room-high doorway as­sem­blies com­pris­ing the actual doors plus the fan­lights above, both just under ten feet high.

With this kind of scale in­volved, it wouldn’t have done, the ar­chi­tects felt, to fit handles that came across as being too “small-minded and ap­pended”. They ac­cord­ingly opted for fit­tings with a clear visual iden­tity. The stain­less-steel handles stand out well against the black­ness of the doors. Handles are one of the few items in pub­licly used build­ings that are ac­tu­ally touched, RICHTER MUSIKOWSKI rea­soned, and, as a result, great at­ten­tion also needs to be paid to their aes­thetic and haptic prop­er­ties when de­cid­ing which to fit. They se­lected the FSB 1045 models on the grounds that they “are nicely shaped, rugged and durable, and a plea­sure to take hold of.”