German architect Jakob Tigges has unveiled a plan for a 1,000m tall faux mountain at the site of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, and his supporters are taking it rather seriously. Dubbed “The Berg,” the snow-capped colossus would be the world’s largest man-made mountain and would serve as a tourist attraction for skiers in the otherwise slope-less city. We’re all about adding green space to urban environments, but devoting an enormous amount of time, energy and resources into a gigantic landmass that isn’t even inhabitable on the inside seems like a huge mound of you-know-what, if you ask us.
Plans for The Berg seem to have spawned out of a severe case of “peakis-envy”. Says Tigges in his manifesto “While big and wealthy cities in many parts of the world challenge the limits of possibility by building gigantic hotels with fancy shapes, erecting sky-high office towers or constructing hovering philharmonic temples, Berlin sets up a decent mountain… Hamburg, as stiff as flat, turns green with envy, rich and once proud Munich starts to feel ashamed of its distant Alp-panorama and planners of the Middle-East, experienced in taking the spell off any kind of architectural utopia immediately design authentic copies of the iconic Berlin-Mountain.”
While it may seem counterintuitive to think that building a massive office building or condominium is more environmentally friendly than a mountain, it’s important to point out that inhabitable buildings cram tons of useful space onto relatively small footprints while a mountain (which from the renderings appears to be filled-in with no livable space inside) occupies a huge footprint while providing almost no other use than a place to enjoy outdoor sports.
While it remains unclear whether or not The Berg is an actual project with plans of being built or simply one man’s pie-in-the-sky dream, the concept has already become a hit on Facebook with almost 3,500 fans and has been published by multiple outlets in the German press. What do YOU think? Is The Berg worth building or just a mountain of rubbish? Sound off by commenting below.
+ The Berg
Via World Architecture News
Thank you for posting this story! It’s a really interesting project and it’s nice to see it getting international press.
Cute, though, that this article asks the question whether the Berg is “worth building” or not, as the entire project is intended as a tongue-in-cheek artistic/political statement. It’s a satirical jab at local Berlin politicians for their lack of imagination in determining a future for the Tempelhof airport property.
It’s a joke, guys. Get it? A mountain? In the middle of Berlin? lolololol.
Anyway otherwise very nice work
I hope this project gets off the ground! Can you imagine a similar artificial mountain in central Paris? Awesome!
I think they need to make a molehill out of that mountain.