Berlin big top: enclosed by a spectacular circus tent-like roof, the revitalised Tempodrom in Berlin draws on its original spirit of imagination and informality.Berlin's Tempodrom occupies a cherished place in the city's recent cultural history. Set up in Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz, sometimes known in English as Potsdam Square,[1] is an important town square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament Building), and near the Berlin Wall on Mayday 1980, two circus tents, one large and one small, hosted a lively assortment of performances and exhibitions that flourished in the city's preunification Bohemian zeitgeist. Now, over 20 years later, it has become a permanent and more up-market home on the site of the former Anhalter Bahnhof (the station that was once Berlin's 'gateway to the south'). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Von Gerkan Marg's new Tempodrom harks back evocatively to its circus origins with a soaring, tent-like roof structure, 37m high, made of folded steel plates resting on 12 cylindrical supports. The tent encloses an in-the-round performance space and its angular form hovers over an external podium that functions, like a public square, as a place to meet and socialise Verb 1. socialise - take part in social activities; interact with others; "He never socializes with his colleagues"; "The old man hates to socialize" socialize . Below the podium are foyers, conference rooms, bars and cafes. Inside the tent, the faceted ceiling is lined with thin strips of plywood to improve acoustic performance. The strips are arranged in a herring-bone pattern, so the roof resembles the tautly draped drape v. draped, drap·ing, drapes v.tr. 1. To cover, dress, or hang with or as if with cloth in loose folds: draped the coffin with a flag; a robe that draped her figure. cloth of a modern big top. Light filters down from the apex of the tent and through a series of triangular glazed openings around its base where the structure flares gently outward. Seating for 3,800 spectators is dug in below the podium. An adjacent smaller performance space for 400 is conceived as simple concentric tiers of seating around a central sunken stage. The contemporary tent is an undoubtedly dramatic volume, but perhaps the most intriguing space in the complex is the Liquidrom, a circular basin of water housed in a domed concrete cavern. Up to 50 visitors can wallow wallow mud bath frequented by pigs, elephants, red deer, hippopotami as a cooling aid. in the warm salt-water pool and experience concerts through underwater speakers and a quartet of sound columns. Within this mysterious, subterranean grotto, light installations enhance the sensuous mood, sending shadows rippling around the concrete vault. An oculus oculus (Latin: “eye”) In architecture, any of several elements resembling an eye, such as a round or oval window or the round opening at the top of some domes (see Pantheon). brings shafts of daylight into the chthonic chthon·ic also chtho·ni·an adj. Greek Mythology Of or relating to the underworld. [From Greek khthonios, of the earth, from khth gloom below. Around the Liquidrom is an array of saunas, steam baths and an onsen--a Japanese open-air hot bath. Partly in response to a tight budget, the palette of materials and finishes also reflects an oriental refinement--surfaces in bathing areas are clad in green-grey stone, set against smooth concrete and strips of untreated red cedar red cedar: see juniper. . Elsewhere in the Tempodrom, concrete walls and floors of polished, poured asphalt are durable but elegant solutions to vigorous use by a high through put of people. In the complex's bars and cafes, lacquered lac·quer n. 1. Any of various clear or colored synthetic coatings made by dissolving nitrocellulose or other cellulose derivatives together with plasticizers and pigments in a mixture of volatile solvents and used to impart a high gloss to plywood form work is turned into fixtures and simple customised furniture. The building is also highly environmentally conscious--an internal generator produces over half its heat and power requirements, backed up by an electrical and thermal solar plant. A heat exchanger heat exchanger Any of several devices that transfer heat from a hot to a cold fluid. In many engineering applications, one fluid needs to be heated and another cooled, a requirement economically accomplished by a heat exchanger. is used for air-conditioning, and in the Liquidrom, salt water is recycled using a special filter to reduce pollution. Though times change and the Tempodrom has now become a more mainstream fixture in Berlin's cultural life, von Gerkan Marg's imaginative approach to its reinvention still preserves some teasing memories of its anarchic origins. C. S. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] |
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