On Architecture

As part of an austerity package which has been accounced today, the German government has put the (re)construction of the “Berliner Stadtschloss” on hold until 2014, which essentially means that the project has been cancelled, or is at least likely to be cancelled in the end. The original plan was to reconstruct a former Prussian castle which once inhabited a site in the center of Berlin, but had been damaged in World War II and was demolished during the period of the German Democratic Republic.

The Stadtschloss was one of the most controversially discussed current architectural projects in Germany, a fact which echoes in the media reception of today’s annoucement. While the Spiegel weeps for the “most important project in the country”, Baunetz agrees with the decision and infers that “a fiscally wrong argumentation leads to an architecturally right solution” (both articles available in German only).

Even after its presumable death, the project will probably continue to spark endless discussions in the architectural world.