The brutalist Mäusebunker has a love/hate relationship with the locals, but now it is finally safe from demolition by being granted listed building status.
The ‘Mouse Bunker’ was designed by Gerd and Magdalena Hänska and built between 1971-81 as an animal laboratory for the Freie Universität Berlin and was used for experimental medicine until 2020. But then it closed, and many would have preferred to see this spectacular, brutalist building demolished, for which permission has already been granted. However, urbanists have fought to keep it in recent years, until the fate of the former laboratory has finally been sealed, with the city council granting it historic monument status. But it is not only the Mäusebunker that is under threat: the future of many brutalist buildings throughout Berlin and Germany is still uncertain. The importance and value of this style have only begun to be truly recognized in recent years. The 2017 exhibition SOSBrutalism at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt has made a huge contribution to this, cataloging the most important representatives of the period in order to protect and make good use of them.
Source: Designboom
Photos: Felix Torkar
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