Ministry of the Environment

The new building of the Federal Environment Agency is a demonstrative example of ecological construction. Due to its location - a vacant lot in the Gasviertel district of Dessau - it was chosen from an urban planning perspective that revitalizes the site. The contaminated area was cleaned up, and the remaining buildings of the Wörlitzer Bahnhof station and the old gas appliance factory were incorporated into the complex. The design of the new building was conceived to make as much of the land available to the public as possible, and therefore the UBA (Umweltbundesamt) also includes a park. People enter the new building through the “UBA-Forum,” which “pulls” this park inside. From the forum, publicly accessible parts of the office such as a library, information center, congress hall, etc., are accessible. The motif of the rest of the complex is an atrium, which connects to the forum. The building combines a compact form and high thermal insulation of the outer walls with intelligent technology and the use of renewable energy sources. The largest air-source heat pump currently installed, solar collectors, and a small fuel cell BHKW (Blockheizkraftwerk - combined heat and power plant) are built into the house. Only materials that meet all ecological criteria were used in construction; in this context, it is worth mentioning the large orders and use of prototyped wooden façade elements for Germany. The overall requirements for the technical optimization of building components and the ecological quality of the house also stem from the desire to create a pleasant material and spatial dimension.

On a dusty lot not even a hundred steps from the railway line, the Berlin architectural firm Sauerbruch Hutton wove another of its colorful ribbons. With its unmistakable creation and the graphic accompaniment of projects, it is slowly approaching another famous duo, Neutelings&Riedijk. The building is important for three reasons: 1) not all ministries centrally usurp Berlin for themselves; 2) UBA is another example that the German government appreciates modern architecture; 3) something new is finally asserting itself in a city dominated by functionalism. The tradition of functionalism is so strong here that even the new faculties adjacent to Bauhaus still reverently cite the interwar doctrine. And what about the Czechs? It's a shame to talk, we are currently lagging in all three mentioned areas.