Demolish or modernize — Dresden's Culture Palace was a bone of contention for a long time. Finally renovated, the building has won a coveted German architecture award, the DAM Prize 2019.
Image: Christian Gahl
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German Architecture Award 2019 goes to reconstructed Dresden Kulturpalast
The German Architecture Museum Award recognizes the country's best architecture. Gerkan, Marg and Partners won for their work on Dresden's Culture Palace. Here's a look at the finalists' stunning designs.
Image: Christian Gahl
Library at the Dresden Culture Palace
Red carpet, a sound absorbing folded ceiling: The public library housed in Dresden's refurbished 1969 Kulturpalast building, nicknamed "Kulti," invites visitors to study and read in a quiet, relaxed atmosphere. The architects' thoughtful approach to the historic monument from the East German era convinced the German Architecture Museum (DAM) jury to award the Hamburg-based firm the 2019 prize.
Image: Christian Gahl
Dynamic space for music
In the wake of the complete overhaul of Dresden's Kulturpalast, the architects at Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) also devised a new, state of the art 1,800-seat concert hall that will be the home of the Dresden Philharmonic, and a theater stage.
Image: Christian Gahl
A runner-up in Bonn
The interconnected pavilions designed by Waechter + Waechter Architects huddle like honeycombs in a beehive. The new training center for members of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Bonn is set up as an ideal site for open learning. The project was among the DAM finalists for the 2019 award.
Image: Thilo Ross
New blends with old
Another runner-up for the 2019 DAM award, this clear-cut new building blends perfectly with Rottenburg's historic city center. The city library designed by the Stuttgart-based offices of Harris + Kurrle architects appears to have managed an urban development balancing act in the small town on the Neckar River.
Image: Roland Halbe
Phenomenal sound
Destroyed and rebuilt several times, Berlin's historic Staatsoper unter den Linden looks back at an eventful, tragic past. HG Merz architects, on the DAM's short list for the award, were behind the latest renovation and modernization. The revamped concert hall shines anew, and the sound, conductor Daniel Barenboim says, is "phenomenal."
Image: Marcus Ebener
Stacked lids
Munich-based architects Auer Weber designed the new Arena du Pays d'Aix, a handball venue in the southern French city Aix en Provence that looks like a stack of huge white lids. The arena that is open to local sports clubs but is also used for concerts, exhibitions and trade fairs merits more than a mention in this year's DAM yearbook.
Green oasis
Modeled on Asian rice terraces, the Marina One complex in Singapore with its multi-story, three-dimensional gardens mirrors the diversity of tropical flora. Germany's Ingenhoven architects planned and designed the complex's four skyscrapers. The Frankfurt DAM exhibition that goes hand in hand with the annual prize is on until April 22.
Image: HGEsch
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People in Dresden fondly call their Culture Palace "Kulti." Opened in 1969 under Communist East German rule, it was a venue for entertainment.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German reunification, the building could have succumbed to the fate of the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin, which was torn down in 2006-2008.
But Dresden opted for the modernization of its East German legacy instead, and handed the task to gmp – Architects Gerkan, Marg and Partners, who are the winners of the German Architecture Museum's DAM Award 2019.
The building's facade was carefully restored, as were several interior spaces. The old auditorium made way for a modern concert hall and a theater stage. The building also houses the public library, which makes it a lively place during the day. Members of the jury praised the architects for their "respectful, pleasantly unpretentious handling of a monument" — some even called it "magic."
Since 2007, the German Architecture Museum Frankfurt (DAM) has honored particularly successful architecture in Germany and by German architects abroad, a lengthy process involving a long list, a short list and a handful of finalists.
Last year, the award went to the Munich-based "bogevischs bureau architects & city planners" for a housing complex they designed.
DAM Visitors can take a look at the winner and the contender's entries in an exhibition entitled "The 25 best buildings in/from Germany," which runs until April 22. A few of the best designs are also highlighted in our picture gallery above.
