Design for World’s Largest Man-Made Mountain Towers Over Berlin
Posted By Yuka Yoneda On February 13, 2010 @ 4:00 pm In Architecture | 3 Comments
[4]
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 [5],” the snow-capped colossus would be the world’s largest man-made mountain [6] and would serve as a tourist attraction for skiers in the otherwise slope-less city. We’re all about adding green space [7] 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.
[8]
Plans for The Berg seem to have spawned out of a severe case of “peakis-envy”. Says Tigges in his manifesto [9] “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 [10] 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 [11] 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 [5]
Via World Architecture News [12]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/the-berg-is-building-the-worlds-largest-man-made-mountain-a-colossal-mistake/
URLs in this post:
[1] Tweet: http://twitter.com/share
[2] Share on Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/share
[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/the-berg-is-building-the-worlds-largest-man-made-mountain-a-colossal-mistake/
[4] Image: http://inhabitat.com/the-berg-is-building-the-worlds-largest-man-made-mountain-a-colossal-mistake/the-berg/
[5] The Berg: http://www.the-berg.de/
[6] man-made mountain: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/14/colossal-green-volcano-rises-in-italy/
[7] green space: http://www.inhabitat.com/index.php?s=green+space
[8] Image: http://inhabitat.com/the-berg-is-building-the-worlds-largest-man-made-mountain-a-colossal-mistake/the-berg-city-view/
[9] manifesto: http://www.mila-berlin.com/theberg/bilder/Manifesto/manifest2.pdf
[10] renderings: http://www.mila-berlin.com/theberg/plan1.html
[11] 3,500 fans: http://www.facebook.com/thebergberlin
[12] World Architecture News: http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=12764
Click here to print.