This auditorium of John F Kennedy Institute is located in a former fin de siècle school building and is an important centre for institute lectures. Professors at John F Kennedy Institute opted for an experiment: They commisioned a prestigious lecture hall, which was meant to make it clear that theoretical debate and the presentation of important lectures also by external personalities from abroad are integral parts of what characterizes an internationally operating institute. The Fraenkel Lectures will take place here and make this hall the FU institute’s showcase for North American Studies. The skywave starts out as a slightly ascending floor ramp embedded in coarse-grained quartz gravel, then turning into an accompanying ceiling wing. Its formal dynamics is reinforced perspectively thanks to built-in glittering light slots. The specular sky-blue surface and the iridescent chairs and rostrum, coated with green and blue high-gloss varnish, reflect each other, thus creating multifarious light effects by night and including the surrounding green tones by day.

Project Management

Dipl-Ing Susanne Hofmann BDA

die Baupiloten

Philipp Baumhauer, Julian Sauer, Christian Weinecke

Client

JFK-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin

Design Team

Ing.-Büro Moll (Acustic)

Budget

75,000 EUR brutto

Work Stages

LP 1-9, Partizipation

Completion

Januar 2002

Address

JFK Institute Lansstraße
14195 Berlin Steglitz-Zehlendorf

Fotograf Jan Bitter