Whimsical nicknames, demolition requests, suddenly monument protection: Berlin’s large buildings of modern technology have been through a lot. An exhibition shows ideas for their future.
The “Mouse Bunker” has now been saved, namely placed under protection, according to the Berlin State Monuments Office. And that’s not just good news for friends of the brutalist architecture of the 1970s, which essentially consisted of thick exposed concrete. Even the eponymous mice don’t have to worry that they will have to be used again for drug research in the building. The building erected between 1971 and 1982 for the central animal laboratories of the Freie Universität Berlin was not only criticized for its bunker-like exterior for a long time, but also for what happened inside. Martial form and purpose combined in perception to a place of suffering, which even shines through in the belittling nickname. Animal testing is still being done, just in a different place, but the perception of the building has changed. When, after decades of demolition calls, the demolition was actually due in 2020, protests arose and were successful. Brutalist buildings are once again being met with more aesthetic appreciation today. And even if not: So much concrete, so much gray energy, is no longer so easy to clear away today, also for ethical reasons.