'The empty spaces that define its figure are the places that best represent our civilization in its unconscious, multiple becoming. These urban amnesias are not only waiting to be filled with things, they are living spaces to be filled in with meanings.'
Francesco Careri, Walkscapes, 2002

In the Bernauerstrasse, on the border between Mitte and Wedding, between former Soviet and Allied ground, the traces of the Berlin Wall are numerous and extremely expressive. The former interior spaces of a strip of building blocks running from the Nordbahnhof to the Mauerpark have changed into exterior spaces and old building foundations have become 'empty space'.

On this particular site, there had been more resistance than anywhere else in Berlin to the Wall and its construction. Cars crashed into it, a church was torn down and people jumped out of windows or dug tunnels in order to escape to the West. These days the strip is in its own way still a void in the urban context. In this zone, East and West Berlin are as divided as ever.

Sited at this intriguing location, my design project seeks to create a new layer based on traces of the Cold War. The synergy of old and new layers should encourage a new interpretation of the place. The design constructs a cultural strip linking East and West and alternating places for events with places for silence.

The museum programme is devoted to writings about the Berlin Wall and its impact in the past, present and future. But it is mainly about memory, people's thoughts and emotions. The visitor's act of walking through the complex could be seen as an interactive activity of reading, thinking, exploring, playing and viewing. The design is as much parallel to the Wall as set square to it, stressing the East-West relationship on the one hand and following the path of the former Wall across the site on the other. The deeper one descends in the museum, the more specific one's ideas on space become, as do the contents of the writings on display. The principal elements facilitating this multiple reading are the museum spaces, the light penetration both day and night, and the rough and smooth building materials.

Place of education: TU Delft | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Marc Schoonderbeek, Raviv Ganchrow, Freerk Hoekstra