The Bundesrat: Portrait of a Building
[Images of the plenary chamber]
Since the plenary chamber was almost entirely destroyed after World War Two, the architects Schweger & Partner had complete freedom to redesign it. The sole spatial guidelines were the surviving elements of the foundations. Apertures spaced at frequent and regular intervals along the walls ensure that the chamber maintains an organic link with the rooms and other areas adjoining it and render it, as a whole, structurally open to the rest of the building.
The materials and colours employed are such as to generate a peaceful and business-like atmosphere and tend to direct attention away from themselves towards the people within the space. While the floor is covered by a dark and heavy parquet of smoked oak, the walls convey rather a sense of lightness and ascending motion. Thus, for example, the sound-absorptive birch wood wainscoting on the chamber’s lower, ground-floor level gradually gives way, higher up its walls, to glass elements. The roof construction, in the form of a glass pyramid held in a flat position, allows daylight to descend into the chamber.
The furnishings in the plenary session chamber of the Bundesrat consist of tables in lighter colours and black, leather-upholstered chairs. The benches set aside for the individual Länder are arranged, in rows three deep, so as to form a great horseshoe. This means that a maximum of six representatives of each Land can participate in any one session. The order of seating in the Bundesrat is not dependent on the party-political allegiances of its members, since the representatives of the various Länder take up their places in the plenary chamber according to the position in alphabetical sequence of the Land they belong to. On either side of the raised seat of the president are the benches set aside for the representatives of the federal government and for the Bundesrat staff.
As in the historical original, the visitors’ balconies have been placed together at the level of the 2nd Floor. The chance is thus given to some 120 spectators and representatives of the press to follow the plenary sessions of the Bundesrat. Above the main balcony, disguised by a glass screen, are the audio-visual direction centre and two cabins for interpreters.
In order to render what is being said so far as possible audible and understandable from every position in the room, special materials were selected for the seats and the wall-cladding. This means that it is possible, should it prove necessary, to conduct a session even without microphones.
The materials and colours employed are such as to generate a peaceful and business-like atmosphere and tend to direct attention away from themselves towards the people within the space. While the floor is covered by a dark and heavy parquet of smoked oak, the walls convey rather a sense of lightness and ascending motion. Thus, for example, the sound-absorptive birch wood wainscoting on the chamber’s lower, ground-floor level gradually gives way, higher up its walls, to glass elements. The roof construction, in the form of a glass pyramid held in a flat position, allows daylight to descend into the chamber.
The furnishings in the plenary session chamber of the Bundesrat consist of tables in lighter colours and black, leather-upholstered chairs. The benches set aside for the individual Länder are arranged, in rows three deep, so as to form a great horseshoe. This means that a maximum of six representatives of each Land can participate in any one session. The order of seating in the Bundesrat is not dependent on the party-political allegiances of its members, since the representatives of the various Länder take up their places in the plenary chamber according to the position in alphabetical sequence of the Land they belong to. On either side of the raised seat of the president are the benches set aside for the representatives of the federal government and for the Bundesrat staff.
As in the historical original, the visitors’ balconies have been placed together at the level of the 2nd Floor. The chance is thus given to some 120 spectators and representatives of the press to follow the plenary sessions of the Bundesrat. Above the main balcony, disguised by a glass screen, are the audio-visual direction centre and two cabins for interpreters.
In order to render what is being said so far as possible audible and understandable from every position in the room, special materials were selected for the seats and the wall-cladding. This means that it is possible, should it prove necessary, to conduct a session even without microphones.