The Humboldt Jungle project team: Uta Belkius, Hybrid Space Lab (Prof. Elizabeth Sikiaridi, Prof. Frans Vogelaar) and Notker Schweikhardt invited Berlin experts from the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft, the Chamber of Architects, the Association of Landscape Architects, the WWF, and various foundations to discuss and promote the Humboldt Jungle project—the (temporary) greening of the facade of the Humboldt Forum.
Andreas Krüger from the Belius Foundation, which also supports the project, hosted the evening.
Our host, Juerg Judin—a Berlin gallery owner and collector—created a special, creative atmosphere by welcoming us to his wonderfully renovated Alte Tankstelle in Berlin Schöneberg and treating us to a delicious meal.
Lecture by Prof. Elizabeth Sikiaridi & Prof. Frans Vogelaar @ @ GRÜN.kulturell, Alte Tankstelle, Berlin, 29 January 2016
GRÜN.kulturell 22
Culture Meets Politics: Analyses, Ideas, Concepts
Expert Dinner
Friday, January 29, 2016, 18.00 to 23:30
Humboldt Jungle
Green Instead of a Shell – How a Jungle Could Save the Facade of the Humboldt Forum
The WWF is committed to protecting the world’s most important ecosystems: the tropical forests of South America, Africa, and Asia; the temperate forests of Europe; and the marine regions of Asia.
The Amazon rainforest is the most important ecosystem and the largest carbon sink on Earth; crisscrossed by the world’s largest river, it is home to the greatest number of species and has an enormous influence on the global climate.
The man who first brought this natural wonder of South America to the attention of the entire world in a comprehensive, engaging, and scientific manner was Alexander von Humboldt. He was an adventurer, record-breaking mountaineer, scholar of the universal sciences—the first geographer ever, the most successful travel and science writer, a fighter against slavery, and a humanist advocate for human rights. Thanks in no small part to his scientific networks, his extraordinary correspondence, and his publications, he was considered, alongside Napoleon, the most famous person in the Western world during his time.
To this day, he continues to have an extremely positive influence in Latin America as a “German ambassador” and in his homeland—though he is no longer quite as visible in the public eye there—as an eloquent chronicler of natural phenomena and cultures. No one else has had their name lent to more places: 2 universities, countless streets, 8 towns, 3 counties, 3 national parks, 1 glacier, 1 ocean current, 3 mountain ranges, 2 bays, 19 animal species, 17 plants and fungi, as well as an asteroid, a crater, and the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon…
“Normally, a person has to earn the honor of having places, streets, or even buildings named after them. With the Humboldt Forum, it’s the other way around. With the relocation of the Dahlem museums, the palace will become a modern museum, but only a Humboldt jungle will turn it into a Humboldt Forum.”
We were given a detailed overview of the project’s development, the addition of upper floors, and the extensive “greening” of the undamaged WWII anti-aircraft tower on the Heiligengeistfeld in St. Pauli. The developers are the leasehold investors (FC Gundlach and Prof. T. Matzen) of the currently fully leased building and a neighborhood initiative that supported the design of the greening through an intensive workshop process.
Users come from the music and culture sectors and the FC Gundlach Photo Archive; a public participation process for the project development has been underway since mid-2014.
The project concept involves placing a green pyramid with mixed public uses (cultural hall, sports club, guesthouse, bunker museum, participatory spaces) on top of the bunker and providing permanent public access via a green ramp. The model for this is the partially greened anti-aircraft tower in Wilhelmsburg.
The Humboldt Forum is located in the heart of Berlin, but it is still far from having won the hearts of Berliners. For many years now, long before the groundbreaking ceremony, the new City Palace has elicited very mixed and not entirely favorable reactions from the public. Berliners are highly critical of the considerable expenses involved in building the property, but also toward another representative landmark in the city center. The sense of loss, even after the (few) years without development and with the quasi-improvised use by the Temporary Art Hall along with the surrounding open space, is still palpable. The temporary fosters a sense of connection.
The basic idea: Existing Baroque façade elements that have already been funded will be installed as planned, but all remaining open areas will be landscaped and gradually filled in—depending on production and funding status.
Such a design not only visualizes the Humboldt brothers’ interdisciplinary approach, but also symbolizes the origins of the collections that will be housed there in the future. At the same time, a green façade represents a place where the city and the museum are reimagined
The project components:
The green façade will be a “curated playground” featuring plant communities that represent the cultures of the world (examples: Polygarden City, Athens, and the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris).
A temporary rooftop garden, located where the future rooftop café will be, will combine the themes of nature, food, and plants, making them culturally accessible and tying in thematically with the collections at the Humboldt Forum and on Museum Island.
A garden pavilion-greenhouse located next to the construction site, between the Spree River and Spandauer Straße, serves as a showroom, a forum for discussion, an information point, a greenhouse, and a media terminal.
A “part” of this pavilion sets off on a world tour as the “Humboldt Suitcase from Berlin” in the form of a container connected via the Internet.
“Ambassadors” report back to Berlin, live from the stops on Humboldt’s journeys, while “the world” learns on-site, in the traveling container/suitcase, about the status of the project in Berlin.
A series of workshops and symposia will complement the Humboldt Jungle thematically and involve partners and civil society actors in the process of developing its content.
A temporary projection on the west facade of the future Humboldt Forum will use images from the jungle and corresponding other landscapes to create a a bridge to the cultures of origin as well as to the future use of the Humboldt Forum.
All components set the stage for the Jungle and, through this additional layer or level, reinterpret the content. And these modules point to a forum in the true sense of its namesake—one conceived on a larger scale than a traditional “showcase museum.”
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