Klaus-Dieter Weiss

Before heading to Berlin recently I made a list of projects I wanted to see in person. I'd never been to the city, so the list was fairly long and unrealistic, given that I'd be in the city for three days and be spending most of my time at a festival for work. On top of the list was Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum Berlin, and near the top were the Embassies of the Nordic Countries, which consist of a perimeter wall (apt for Berlin) designed by Austrian/Finnish firm Berger + Parkkinen that embraces six buildings: one communal building and the five embassies (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden), each designed by an architect from the respective Nordic country. I always loved the project because of the collaboration and the resulting in-between spaces formed by the buildings. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to see the project, which sits on the south edge of the Tiergarten, in person, but I was able to find a case study on it in a used bookstore where every book was only one Euro — score!

The book is the 40th title in Axel Menges's Opus series (now they're up to 83), which are slim, large-format case studies on important buildings: Sir John Soane's Museum, H.H. Richardson's Glessner House, Norman Foster's Commerzbank, and Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao (the only other one I own) to name a few. The German-English book is made up of three parts: an essay by the author, drawings, and color photographs. As the title indicates, the focus is on Berger + Parkkinen's contributions, so the drawings and photos focus on the copper perimeter and the communal building. As well, Klaus-Dieter Weiss puts the project within the architecture firm's larger work, but he spends more time delving into the political and historical contexts. One thing the book can't capture (it was published right after the embassies were completed in 1999) is how well the in-between spaces work. That will have to wait for my next trip to Berlin.

Update: On another trip to Berlin the following year I was able to visit, snapping these photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/sets/72157688683777241/… (meer)