Back to profile
Eller + Eller Architekten

Robert-Koch-Forum Berlin

Conversion into "Hertie School of Governance"
Eller + Eller Architekten GmbH
Eller + Eller Architekten GmbH
City
Berlin
Building type
universities
building project
reconstruction
completion
2024
material façade
stonework
The Robert Koch Forum in Berlin is being converted into the "Hertie School of Governance".

The 12,525 m² Robert Koch Forum in the immediate vicinity of Berlin's government district is a listed building and is not only due for a complete renovation of its historic structure, but also for a complete conversion/new building to ensure its future use for teaching and research.

The private Hertie School of Governance will move into the renovated and converted Forum as the main tenant. The ensemble of buildings covers almost an entire block and stands between the Jakob Kaiser House of Representatives and the ARD Hauptstadtstudio on the Spree.

The Robert Koch Forum in Berlin's government district is a building complex of great historical value. From 1873 to 1883, the late classicist building was erected on the initiative of the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz as an institute building for the Friedrich Wilhelm University (since 1949 Humboldt University). Nobel Prize winner Robert Koch first presented the tuberculosis pathogen he had discovered in the large lecture hall in 1882, and other Nobel Prize winners such as Max Planck, Gustav Hertz and many others also conducted research here. In the course of its long history, the building ensemble was used by various teaching and research institutions, most recently by the Charité. In 1999, the new building of the ARD capital studio went into operation in a part of the block destroyed during the Second World War. The ARD series "Charité" and the series "Babylon Berlin" use the Robert Koch Forum as a true-to-the-original filming location for their journey back in time.

The state-owned BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH commissioned Eller + Eller Architekten in a VGV procedure with the work phases 3 to 9 of the object planning for the conversion and refurbishment of the Robert Koch Forum into the private university "Hertie School of Governance" in Berlin.
Eller + Eller Architekten was selected due to its many years of expertise in the field of refurbishment and modernisation of existing buildings, particularly in the case of listed buildings. For the special service of construction logistics, which was also commissioned, Eller + Eller Architekten was able to win Drees & Sommer GmbH as a competent planning partner as a subcontractor.