#makhno_architour: TOP-5 Dresden modern buildings

автор: Daria Sushko

PR Manager

If you have ever been walking with an architect around the city, then you know – there is a special, invisible connection between them, they see each other in a different way and speak their own language. The traditional route of castles-town halls-cathedrals is necessarily supplemented by the most interesting architecture projects in recent years.

Our new rubric #makhno_architour is about modern architecture around the world that fascinated us the most, and now we cannot but share these places with you. It is not like those usual guidebooks, we checked. Where to eat-drink, rent a home and buy souvenirs – we omit all that. Only modern architecture, only hardcore.

Let’s start with Dresden must-sees from our architect Alexander Kovpak.

Museum of Military History

The museum consists of two parts: the arsenal of 1877 and the modern completion that was designed by the American architect Daniel Libeskind in 2011. The classic body of the building is pierced by a ruthless wedge. The authors wanted to make visitors think about the essence of the war, its consequences, and our own potential for aggression. In addition, architecture reflects the confrontation between the past and the present and embodies the contrasts of the military history of Germany and the world in general. The more interpretations – the better, the authors believe.

"Libeskind’s absolute style. And it's more like a sculpture, not an architecture. This approach to designing is inherent in museums, and it's cool", – adds Sasha.

Photo: Studio Libeskind

New Synagogue

It was built in 2001 according to the project of a group of architects Vendel, Lorch and Hirsch on the place of the destroyed synagogue. The new building is about the ability to move away from the old pattern without violating the most stringent rules. The building has a cubic shape, decorative stones look like sandstone (a hint of Wailing Wall) and have nothing common with its previous version. In 2002, the synagogue was recognized as the best building in Europe.

"If I built a synagogue, I would have created it like this. Like it is from the future. The approach to designing this synagogue is comparable to that Oscar Niemeyer’s legendary project of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary – all the canons of designing spiritual buildings are preserved, there are a lot of them, it is a science, but the form is new and unexpected", – Sasha says.

Photo: Dmitry Yagovkin

Palace of Culture

The Palace of Culture is a greeting from the socialist past. Locals call this building cherishingly "Culty". They wanted to dismantle it, but eventually decided to upgrade, and already in 2017 the doors of the new Dresden Palace of Culture were opened. From the outside – a typical mosaic facade, and inside – modernism in all its acoustic perfection.

"The interior was changed, the exterior was left, such an interesting contrast. You go into an obscure building, and there it is, just like inside of the Kyiv Central Department Store."

Photo: Nikolaj Lund

Photo: gmp Architekten

Glass manufactory

Everything will be glass. Tower 40 meters high? Glass. The walls? Glass. The total area of the glass cover is 27.5 thousand square meters. And this is the Volkswagen plant. In the center of the building is a public space. You stand in the kingdom of glass and watch how the new cars come off the containers.

Created by the project of the German architect Professor Günther Hen and opened in 2001. The symbol of the glass manufactory is the tower-warehouse of completed products, which is 40 meters high over Dresden, where visitors can take the elevator.

"That's what happens with industrial buildings when they are designed not by engineers, as usual, but architects", – admits Sasha.

Photo: Alexander Kovpak

Max Planck Institute

The 2000-year project of Finnish architects, Mikko Heikkinen, Markku Komonen, and the German architectural firm HENN. Researches on molecular and cellular biology are held here. The main idea of the building was to provide the laboratory with the most innovative technologies and to create a space that will inspire its employees for new discoveries.