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  • ‘draw love build’: A dull architectural legacy

Group Show

‘draw love build’: A dull architectural legacy

The Akademie der Künste presents a collection of architectural models and sketches by Sauerbruch Hutton, offering a mixed bag of iconic designs and less compelling projects. ★★★☆☆

Photo: Bitter + Bredt

You’ve likely seen the GSW building, rising like a boat’s sail over Kochstraße. With its concave double façade in shades of pink, red and light brown, it exudes an ethereal, timeless quality, though if no one pointed it out, you might not notice it at all. It is difficult to underestimate the significance of this building, both to the young architectural firm that designed it and for the city of Berlin.

Finished in 1999, in the messy no-man’s land around Checkpoint Charlie, it immediately became a beacon amidst Berlin’s post-ideological brick-and-mortar battleground. This is the first building you see in the AdK’s latest exhibition, which is not really an exhibition at all, but a selection of models and wall works recently donated by the firm. But don’t let that put you off – the models, in all their detailed blankness, are exquisite, with white-tipped trees and finely routed grooves.

With over 60 projects scattered around the AdK’s gloomy chambers, some are ponderous, others otherworldly, like bleached, geometric termite nests. Eventually it becomes a bit repetitious, but it ends on a high with Harun Farocki’s Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten, a film that shows the gruelling processes that go into the selection of tints and hues and the gritted-teeth compromises. A surprising pleasure, its relaxed curation is the blueprint for its success. ★★★☆☆

  • Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, Mitte, through Jan 19, 2025, details.