Narrative Architecture by Sylvain De Bleeckere & Sebastiaan Gerards

Author:Sylvain De Bleeckere & Sebastiaan Gerards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

FIGURE 2.31 Federal House (Bonn, Germany), Günter Behnisch. Photo: © Qualle.

FIGURE 2.32 Federal House (Bonn, Germany), Günter Behnisch. Photo: © Alexander Massouls.

FIGURE 2.33 Federal House (Bonn, Germany), Günter Behnisch. Photo: © Alexander Massouls.

FIGURE 2.34 Federal House (Bonn, Germany), Günter Behnisch. Photo: © Yentl Bielen.

FIGURE 2.35

Federal House (Bonn, Germany), Günter Behnisch. Photo: © Yentl Bielen.

FIGURE 2.36

Federal House (Bonn, Germany), Günter Behnisch. Photo: © Marie Frioni.

Entering the hemispherical Plenary Hall creates a feeling of being invited to a spiritualized place orchestrated by the abundance of clear light, the seats in blue and its transparent glass walls. Press and public can use the comfortable tribunes with the same seats as the members of parliament. Instead of descending into darkness, the architectural path brings the members and the public into a sphere of light and color. At the same time, that enlightening path is visually reinforced by connecting with the nearby Rhine and the second entrance on the bank of the river.

Another appealing element of the moral imagination invested in the building is the playful integration of the artworks by Sam Francis, Mark di Suvero, Rebecca Horn, Joseph Beuys and Hermann Glöckner. The different postwar artworks by American and West German artists, men and women, remind the members of parliament of the main principles on which a democratic society is built. The artworks represent the free imagination and the human right to express oneself. The artworks deny every form of totalitarianism by commemorating creatively how Nazism censured and even burned all kinds of modern artworks.

The Federal House creates a working place for the heart of German democracy by combining earnestness and playfulness, formal and informal behavior. That kind of balance failed absolutely in Nazi politics. The Nazi leaders and party members always sounded very serious. In his brave film The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin ridiculed that kind of political behavior that lacks any kind of humor.

Behnisch has given the members of parliament a unique space to practice their awareness of the relativity of their legal power. After their earnest debates in the Plenary Hall or rooms of the special commissions, they could gather informally in the restaurant that opened out onto the green areas on the riverside. The restaurant itself doesn’t look like a functional space. Because of the low ceiling, which was something that Behnisch couldn’t change, the architect asked Italian, self-taught artist Nicola de Maria to paint the roof (Figure 2.37). The bright colors create a childish, playful atmosphere in a postmodern performance. It’s an expression of imagination and creativity, inviting the members of parliament to socialize informally with each other in the same spirit and to step out of their role as powerful politicians for a while.

The democratic spirit of Behnisch’s Federal House inspired the reunited German politicians to design their working places in the new capital Berlin. The Reichstag, the Chancellery Building (Bundeskanzleramt) and the other new buildings of the Government District on the bend of the Spree River, combine the new self-awareness of the democratic German people with openness to and connection with the people (Krüger 2014, 26–85).

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