The former animal laboratories of the Charité in Lichterfelde, also known as the Mäusebunker building, have now been placed under monument protection, saving it from the threat of demolition that has been slated since 2010. The brutalist structure was designed by architects Gerd and Magdalena Hänska and built from 1971, and put into operation in 1982. While its strong image, combined with its function as a laboratory for animal tests, resulted in the general public’s distaste for it, the Brutalist building slowly gained acceptance and even a cult status among brutalist fans.
The State Monuments Office, headed by Christoph Rauhut since 2018, has organized a model procedure to find the potential future uses, concluding that the former laboratories have brand potential and, if properly restored, could bring added value to Berlin. The 117-meter-long reinforced concrete on the Teltow Canal in Lichterfelde, Berlin, has been partly disused since 2009 when harmful pollutants made parts of the building unusable. The structure has been completely empty since 2019.
Following an urban planning and specialist workshop, the States Monument Office concluded the former laboratories can be transformed into a mixed-use cultural venue. While the building poses several challenges, including pollution and poor lighting available inside, its high-ceiling lad capacity and autonomous construction segments allow for adaptive reuse. Cafés, event rooms, commercial uses, and rooms for research and artistic practice could be integrated into its spaces, while natural light and ventilation could be brought in by cutting atriums into its internal structures, according to Christoph Rauhut, head of the State Monuments Office in Berlin.
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Why Cities Should Transform Their White ElephantsThe Mouse Bunker poses a question for us: How do we deal with highly specific buildings from this time when we mistakenly assumed that energy and resources were in abundance? At that time, a lot of money was spent across Europe on very complex buildings that are difficult to reuse. - to Christoph Rauhut, head of the State Monuments Office in Berlin, in an interview for Tagesspiegel.
The structure, reminiscent of an armed cruiser with its blue ventilation pipes sticking out of the concrete shell, has attracted architects, art historians, brutalist fans, and architecture enthusiasts to launch a rescue campaign. The building has been presented in exhibitions, films, publications, and events. In 2019 it appeared on The Guardian’s list of ‘Brutalist buildings under threat.’ In 2017, the #SOSBRUTALISM platform organized an exhibition at the Benjamin Franklin Campus to demonstrate the monumental value of the Mäusebunker.
The “Suddenly Wonderful” exhibition, open from May 26th until September 18th, 2023 at the Berlinische Galerie Museum of Modern Art, aims to continue to popularize the value of West Berlin’s 1970s architecture. During the Cold War, several notable buildings were constructed as sites for research, education, and cultural activity, many of them facing the same threat of demolition. Besides the “Mäusebunker” or the former Central Animal Labs at the Freie Universität Berlin in Lichterfelde (1971–1981), the exhibition also presents the International Congress Centre (ICC Berlin, 1973–1979), also known as the “Battleship Charlottenburg,” the erstwhile Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology (1969–1974) which gained monument status in 2020, and the tower restaurant in Steglitz better known as the “Bierpinsel.”
Around the world, several other modern monuments are facing demolition threats. Kenzo Tange’s Kagawa Gymnasium in Japan, built between 1961 and 1964, has is planned for demolition, while an online petition attempts to save the 47-year-old-monument. Last year, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) announced the decision to end the restoration works for elements of the campus designed by Louis Kahn with Balkrishna V. Doshi and Anant Raje in 1962, representing a reversal of the decision to to withdraw the first demolition plans following global protests, announced in January 2021.
