humboldt forum in berlin by franco stella

in december 2008, italian architect franco stella, a student of aldo rossi, won a competition to design and faithfully reproduce three of the four original façades of the berlin palace and much of its interior courtyard. the fourth elevation has been left the designer’s imagination. work on the ‘humboldt forum’, as the new palace will be called, is set to begin in 2010, but it seems that the outcome is uncertain as there may not be enough qualified stonecutters in the whole of europe to carry out the job.

rendering of the humboldt forum by franco stella architect

model of humboldt forum by franco stella architect

model of humboldt forum

model of humboldt forum

courtyard of the humboldtforum

courtyard of the humboldt forum

the ‘berliner stadtschloss’ in a 19th century painting

the berliner stadtschloss (berlin city palace), was a royal palace in the centre of berlin. the palace bore features of the baroque style, and its shape, finalized by the mid 18th century, is attributed to andreas schlüter. the palace incorporated earlier parts seen in 1688 by nicodemus tessin. it was the principal winter residence of the kings of prussia from 1701-1918 and a museum following the fall of the german empire in 1918. damaged during world war II, the palace was demolished in 1950 by the GDR authorities in spite of west german protests. following the reunification of germany, it was decided to rebuild the stadtschloss, but actually it’s hard to find a thinking berliner these days who likes the schloss idea.