ZENTRUM FUR KUNST UND MEDIENTECHNOLOGIE (ZKM)

GERMANY, KARLSRUHE, 1992

Centre for art and media technology


Sandwiched between railway lines and autobahn loops at the southern entrance to the city lies this manifesto for a new kind of deep/large building. Organizing a large number of different programs, including sound laboratories, a library and museum, this potential development interwines with the existing systems of the city, while a public circulation system unfolds the activities from its core.

It is maximally intertwined with the existing systems of the city. Its location alone lends its maximum exposure and identity to 'construct' a public on a European scale.
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The Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) is an experiment, a Darwinian arena where different media - classical and futuristic - can compete and influence each other.

The building organizes a large number of different programs in such a way that while their particular needs are respected, their coexistence insures maximum mutual influence; their interface generates hybrid condition.

Its five programs:
1. laboratories for sound and (computer and video) image, media theater
2. media museum
3. museum for contemporary art
4. library
5. lecture hall and other facilities are stacked in a single 'tower' - its lower half productive spaces, devoted to research; its upper half concerned with display

A public circulation system snakes around the core, invading it at strategic moments in a continuous unfolding of the center's activities.

Manifesto
Architecturally, ZKM is a manifesto for a new kind of deep/large building where the splintered elements of recent architectures can be reassembled in an organization which is not dependent on compositional or aesthetic criteria - a technologically sophisticated domain where complexity and freedom can be pursued at the same time.