Today, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin launched the architecture competition for the Invalidenstraße site. The focus is on creating an infrastructure that meets today's requirements for around one million visitors a year and creating optimal conditions for research and the collections. In addition to the areas of Collection Development and Knowledge Transfer, the Construction sub-project is now visibly moving into focus as part of the museum's Future Plan.
"Over the past few years, we have used structured processes to form a picture of what the museum of the future could look like and what functions it must fulfil," says Stephan Junker, the museum's Managing Director. "This includes considerations of how many visitors we expect and how we will organise their stay, how the collection will be safely housed in the future and at the same time be explorable. Now we can finally put the planning services out to tender and thus start the subsequent construction process."
Since 2018, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has already been working on the implementation of the Future Plan in various sub-projects. In order to further develop as an open and integrated research museum with the themes of biodiversity, evolution, science and society in the coming years, a building is needed that economically, functionally and sustainably promotes cutting-edge research, collection development and science communication.
Over the past few years, the basic requirements for a structural upgrade and expansion of the building have been determined and summarized in a so-called requirements programme. The programme of requirements has now been examined and approved, and as a first step the planning services can now be put out to tender. The architecture competition focuses on the following core tasks:
- Design of the forecourt with a main entrance that is accessible to everyone
- Development of the museum as an open, integrated research museum with modern infrastructure for visitors
- New buildings in the courtyards for collection and research purposes
- Design of the outdoor facilities
After the conclusion of the architecture competition and the decision of the jury in June 2023, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin will immediately enter into dialogue with the public.
We would like to thank the German Bundestag, the Berlin House of Representatives and the donors of the Museum für Naturkunde:
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Department 426 – Social Sciences and Humanities.
- Senate Department for Science, Health, Care and Equality