The workshop and depot building catalogs, preserves and stores the archives and artistic heritage of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is at once the “memory” and “treasury” of the state. The necessary storage spaces have high security requirements, and thus are neither publicly accessible nor visible to the public through windows. Hence, the exterior architectural appearance is of particular importance in the communication of value, use, and content – collection, storage and preservation. The weight and form of the horizontal structure anchors the archival collection onto the site. A relationship to the regional context is visible in the materiality of the building’s envelope: the collection is protected by polished, coloured concrete with local seashells used as aggregate. The building, in its massing and design, is reminiscent of rolling archive shelves or a barcode – the modern metaphor for precise organisation. Opened “shelves” create slots in the building volume that suggest the size and order of the “treasury” without revealing its contents. The use is thus symbolized in the building and its materiality.
Building-Realization Competition (2012): 2nd Prize
Client: Betrieb für Bau und Liegenschaften (BBL M-V)
Program: Workshops and Depot for Paper, Archaeology and Applied Arts
Plot Area: 4,6 ha (total)
Floor Area: 22.500 m²
Team: Sabine Müller, Andreas Quednau, Robert Gorny, Anna Kostreva, Kirk Weisgerber