Architecture
Workshop (AAC - Academy for Architectural Culture)
Museum
Tobias Benjamin Bosse
Nguyen Viet Tien
Huang Lili
Hamburg, Germany
2015
Johann von Mansberg
Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Dipl.-Ing. Meinhard von Gerkan (President of the AAC) and Dipl.-Ing. Architekt Nikolaus Goetze
More than a revival of the former Natural History Museum—destroyed in 1943—the Evolutioneum aims to unite research, collections, and exhibitions within a single building. It will serve as both a public cultural space and a professional scientific facility.
The project, initiated by Hamburg University in collaboration with CeNak, focuses on three core components: sensory-rich exhibition spaces, a non-public research cluster, and a compact, accessible storage area.
There are currently two different scenarios in terms of the selection of a site for the Evolutioneum – one is the historic building of the former telecommunications office in the direct urban context of the Rotherbaum district. This is perfectly suited to an important cultural use owing to its large-scale construction and direct proximity to the university campus. The other is the western point of the Baakenhafen quay, which has all the characteristics of a symbolic and highly conspicuous site for a museum building built by the water.
The first workshop documented here deals with the new building on the waterfront.
In 1943, the museum building was destroyed during World War II air raids and never rebuilt. Its legacy continued with the opening of the Zoological Museum Hamburg in 1983.