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The former Goethe House in New York. © Christina Horsten/dpa
After the Goethe-Institut moved to southern Manhattan, there was a lack of convincing concepts. Expensive maintenance costs and fire protection regulations from Germany made the building, which had hardly been used for a long time, into “Germany’s most expensive haunted castle”.
Now a center for transatlantic encounters is to grow out of it. Everyone, from the then Chancellor Willy Brandt to the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, gave each other a hand. The Federal Foreign Office wants to build on this and involve other transatlantic players in New York.
“We need more and more opportunities for structured dialogue on issues that are important to us today. That has never been more necessary than now,” says Chipperfield. “An institution like this, organized to discuss ideas related to the way we live, problems we face, is a fantastic concept.”
In the future, scholarship holders and researchers will live and work in one place that will also serve as a meeting place and event location. “To be in a building used by scientists and occupied by intellectuals is much more fascinating than, for example, any room in a museum.” Chipperfield speaks of a “place of ideas”.
According to the design, the various activities in the house overlap. “It would be a shame if you walked into the building for a reception or a reading and didn’t notice that scholarship holders reside there,” explains Chipperfield. “We designed the building to be as open and friendly as possible and largely reduced the institutional facilities.” The place should not feel too formal. “So we created a series of slightly more complex spaces, so not just workspaces and conference rooms, but areas in the building where different levels of privacy or publicity can be created.”