By: Meinhard von Gerkan
The oeuvre of von Gerkan, Marg and Partner is a part of Germany's architectural history, a demonstration of contemporary architecture and its vision for the next millennium. In this volume, the diversity and high aesthetic quality of the office's most recent buildings and projects are documented. In a play between form and function which does not yield to fashionable trends, their architecture proves once again to be art with a social purpose, "a shell in which to work and live" (Kristin Feireiss). The spectrum of this volume encompasses their activities from the years 1997-1999, including the lecture theatres at the university of Chemnitz, the pavillion of the Christian churches at the EXPO 2000 in Hannover, the new building for the Dresden Bank at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, designs for the German School in Beijing and the trade fair in Rimini, Italy and their visions for the new airport Berlin Brandenburg International and their plans for the city of Hamburg. Finally the book documents the folding bridge in Kiel, development in collaboration with J rg Schlaich and the design for Germany's new Metropolitan train.