During my third semester in 2001 I took part in a project in conjunction with the course-related internship design, which required taking part in a competition called "Kulturforum Berlin". An overview about this competition is available in the following.

explanation of the concept:

The so called 'Kulturforum' in Berlin isn't accepted by neither the inhabitants of Berlin nor other visitors until today, despite of its cultural importance.
During various competitions the city searched for a new, better and more interesting design for this special place, but there seemed to be no favourite solution. The area is not used by the public and the national library is seperated from the other buildings of the ensemble by the street 'Neue Potsdamer Straße'. So a new competition started, which I took part in with the following work.

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The work started with a visit in Berlin. My image of this city to be a huge maze was intensified by walking around the area. That's why I chose a labyrinth style for my design.

With a linear raster of hedges with a maximum length of 8 metres I created a wide meshed maze, which should arouses interest in the visitors and invites him to discover the Kulturforum. The hedges vary in height to structure the space. Along the taller hedges benches are placed, which can be used to relax. My idea was, to use the area with the hedges as a place to exhibit young, unknown artists work.
The place is lighted by small stripes of glass, illuminated in bright orange. These stripes are placed along the hedges in the ground. This light gives the area a warm ambience by night.

The strict design is broken up by several groups of small trees to avoid a hiding of the quite low buildings around. My suggestion is Eleagnus ebbingei. This small tree is evergreen and symbolises magic and immortality in China.
The place is paved in granite which shows a nice contrast to the luscious green of the hedges and ensures the warmth of the forum by day.

On the Piazetta, also paved with the same material, you can find a small pavilion to sit outside and take a snack. To overcome the differences in height to the entrances of the buildings, broad stairs run along the whole length of the area.

To avoid a further separation of the Kulturforum and the Staatsbibliothek (national library), I extended the structure of hedges to the space in front of the library, trying to create a visual unity.

The desity of the labyrinth is shown by the pictograms. The red areas symbolise the existence of hedges, the different colour strength shows a different density. At the border the system is more dense to create a kind of privacy but further inward it opens to the empty space beneath the Piazetta.

The plain design of the place should underline the exceptional beauty of the buildings around and not outshine them.