Kreuzbauten (Bonn)

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Cross structures
Aerial photo from the southeast (2013)
Cross structures, aerial view (2017)
Aerial photo of the cross structures (2006)

The Kreuzbauten in Bonn are an ensemble of buildings that is the seat of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research , the headquarters of the Federal Railway Office , the German Institute for Adult Education and the Armed Forces Office . You are in the southern part of the federal district in the district of Hochkreuz , which belongs to the Bad Godesberg district.

The entire facility extends between Godesberger Allee in the west, Heinemannstrasse in the north, Langer Grabenweg in the east and Max-Löbner-Strasse in the south. In addition to the two cross-shaped high-rise buildings with 12 and 15 floors, it consists of four smaller base buildings, three small pavilions lying next to one another, a porter's lodge and the square between the buildings, which has a two-story basement. The building complex , designed by the planning group Stieldorf was at a cost of 182 million from 1969 to 1975  DM built, stands since 2004 as a monument under monument protection and is owned by the federal . When it opened, one of the buildings also housed the Federal Ministry of Justice .

The outdoor area was partially designed by the Cologne painter and sculptor Jürgen Hans Grümmer . Particularly outstanding here are the sculptured basalt steles of the “stone spinning top” (as a roundabout and at the same time as a “quiet island” for pedestrians and employees of the cross structures) and “Polyphems Toys”, an inner courtyard with numerous basalt sculptures. One of the most striking works of art is the Plastic Crossing (1977) by the sculptor Ansgar Nierhoff .

The ministry area is the beginning of a government district planned by Joachim Schürmann in 1968 in what is now the Bad Godesberg district , which was to create space for all federal ministries with seven cross structures. However, the plans failed due to public criticism and the city's plans for the preservation and redesign of the Rheinaue as a landscape park, which were later implemented . Originally, the cross structures should also be open to the public. Due to the security requirements of the federal government, however, NATO wire rolls were laid, which survived until the 1990s and were then replaced by structural fencing and video cameras.

From spring 2004 to spring 2010 the buildings were extensively refurbished for fire protection reasons, as combustible insulation materials were found. In addition, the entire energy concept of the property's buildings was improved. New facades with a high thermal insulation effect were installed. The cost of the renovation had to be revised upwards several times, according to the latest status it took 139 million euros from federal funds. Following the renovation of the building, the so-called zero level - to ensure watertightness - and adjacent components began in 2011 , which lasted until 2013. In addition to the watertightness, the complexity of the construction measure consists in the edging of the external works of art from the 1970s / 80s by the edging in the red composite paving by the executing companies. The cost of the redevelopment measures for the outdoor area amounted to around 4.2 million euros.

The buildings were also prepared for the German Institute for Adult Education , the Federal Railway Authority and the Armed Forces Office , which moved into part of the building complex after the renovation. On December 22, 2006, the first renovated building was handed over to the Federal Ministry, which also ended the first construction phase, which cost 40 million euros. In the second and third construction phases, the second cross building and three other buildings on the site were renovated. The second cross building was occupied again in 2009. As the most prominent feature of the modernization, the cross structures were given a white-gray facade instead of the previously dark red facade.

"The mediocre architecture of most of the buildings [in the ministerial location Godesberg-Nord] shows the so far little appreciated design quality of the two cross structures."

- Andreas Denk (1997)

“The colossi of the cruciform buildings are beyond Bonn's previous dimensions. Building becomes brutal here. "

- Ingeborg flag (1992)

literature

Web links

Commons : Kreuzbauten  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), p. 24, number A 3845
  2. ↑ - Slideshow mainly with photos of basalt spinning top and Polyphems toys on the site of the Kreuzbauten
  3. ↑ The Lord Mayor of Bonn (Ed.); Friedrich Busmann : From the parliament and government district to the federal district. A Bonn development measure 1974-2004 . Bonn, June 2004, p. 41.
  4. ↑ 139 instead of 36 million euros: Refurbishment of the cross structures costs significantly more , General-Anzeiger , June 27, 2009
  5. ↑ 30 million euros for the "zero level" , General-Anzeiger, March 1, 2011
  6. ↑ Renovation of Kreuzbauten in Bonn ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Wayss & Freitag Civil Engineering @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wf-ingbau.de
  7. ^ [1] , executing renovation company of the entire outside area of ​​the Kreuzbauten
  8. ^ Andreas Denk, Ingeborg Flagge: Architekturführer Bonn .
  9. ^ Ingeborg flag: Provisional as fate . In: Ingeborg Flagge, Wolfgang Jean Stock (Hrsg.): Architecture and Democracy . Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-7757-0402-7 , pp. 224–245 (here: p. 239).

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 11.7 "  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 17.5"  E