Students from Anhalt present their designs to Mayor Eskandari-Grünberg
Where should it be? What do you want it to look like? What do you want to happen in it? These questions will shape the debate about the House of Democracy in the coming months. The first concrete ideas are now available: Six students from the Graduate School of Architecture at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences have drawn up designs for the House of Democracy and presented them to Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg.
The background: St. Paul's Church is to be renovated and redesigned in the coming years. In addition, a House of Democracy is to be built near it as a place for communication and historical-political education. In April, an expert commission appointed by the city, the state and the federal government for the Paulskirche presented recommendations for further action, proposing Paulsplatz as the location for the House of Democracy.
In contrast, the designs submitted by the students from Anhalt offer very different solutions and show the creative range of possibilities. For example, one design calls for pavilions to be spread throughout the city. Another uses the Main quay with a walkable arch structure. Many also chose sensitive solutions for Paulsplatz, in which the lines of sight to St. Paul's Church, as well as the plane trees, are preserved.
Common to all the designs is that they prefer open, light and green structures. The idea is to create flexible spaces that invite self-organization. The students come from Iran, Turkey and India; they presented their designs with their course instructor Prof. Alfred Jacoby.
Mayor Eskandari-Grünberg thanked the group for their work, saying, "I see valuable impulses in this, which will enrich further discussions about the House of Democracy. I hope that it will also stimulate the imagination of the people of Frankfurt:inside." From the drafts and presentations, she said, "a deep engagement with the history of the Paulskirche and contemporary democracy movements is recognizable." She wants to advocate that the works are taken into account in the debate.
