The Dresden of today is turning into the most arbitrary of open air museums. A place where terms like das unglück ('bad luck') or wir haben es nicht gewusst ('we didn't know') literally take on physical form. It was the denial of recent history that prompted this study. Responding to the prevailing tendency to ignore that history, I made a design for the Erlweinspeicher, a warehouse that had been gutted in the firestorm of February 1945. In German, Speicher is synonymous with Dachboden, which means attic. In German literature particularly of the 19th century, the attic was in turn synonymous with socially incorrect statues, banished portraits, painful memories. The attic is the place of suppression and concealment. In view of the fact that Dresden these days can be regarded as the epicentre of Germany's collective loss of memory, I have here rechristened the Erlweinspeicher 'Germany's Attic'.

The first time I was in Dresden, largely ignorant of its history, I was overwhelmed by the fantastic mix of baroque palaces, war ruins, communist edifices and a futuristic cinema. It struck me as being an honest, full-grown city. Dresden seemed to have accepted its history and revealed it, warts and all. This train of thought bothered me, however - Dresden's present-day look was not self-chosen but is the outcome of external factors. This began in the final phase of the war with the bombing raid which deliberately created a firestorm, destroying the city and killing thousands. Then came the DDR years when Berlin decreed what happened in Dresden. After the Berlin Wall fell, East Germany and Dresden in particular were deluged with projects instigated by West Germany. Many see this phase as the third rape of Dresden.

In the last few years, however, there has been a definite change of attitude. Work has been proceeding apace on rebuilding an ideal Dresden, 'resetting' the city to a period when everything was still fine. This manifests itself as a form of reconstruction mania where only prewar ruins are reconstructed, restoration usually being out of the question. Indeed, existing prewar and postwar buildings are being demolished for not fitting into the present planning perspective.

In my design, Germany's Attic is part of a dynamic process. It builds upon the different phases in the history of the Erlweinspeicher. An attic, after all, is also the place where memories are preserved. At a time when Dresden was still full of lavishly ornamented brick warehouses, architect Hans Erlwein erected a functional building in reinforced concrete. Only the twelve dormer windows serve no real purpose and can be seen as romantic 19th-century appurtenances. My design dispenses with these ornamental dormers altogether, replacing them with a more up-to-date response. Their footprints remain as a form of scar tissue. This has stripped the building of visually defining elements; on the other hand, the dormers have always camouflaged the building itself. Without their overwhelming presence the building as a whole is more a physical entity than ever. As Germany's Attic, the Erlweinspeicher is once again a contemporary feature in the Dresden skyline.

Place of education: AvB Arnhem
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Ralph Brodrück, Wim Korvinus, Ady Steketee, Lada Hrsak