By Kristin Kruthaup, dpa
(dpa) – Before the pandemic broke out, people were crowding to get into Berlin’s new Futurium museum.
Lengthy queues were forming on weekends, outside what looks like a giant floating metal box, located close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and the main train station.
Entry to Berlin’s newest museum is free until 2022 and the permanent exhibition asking “how do we want to live?” seems to have struck a nerve.
All those tourists crowding in were looking for answers, it seems – and there are plenty inside, also about the future of the city itself.
Opened in September 2019, the building housing the museum was originally conceived as a showroom for German industry.
It has since morphed into an educational undertaking, with the government holding 80 per cent of the shares. Other shareholders including BASF, Siemens and several large research institutions.
The museum seeks to help people understand the biggest questions about the future, encourage discussion and nudge people into action, according to its catalogue.
The exhibition is divided into three main sections, covering nature, man and technology. The nature area addresses how to protect and conserve nature in cities.
In Berlin and many other cities, vacant areas are being sealed off for construction, as living space as the steady influx of people continues. That disappearance of nature will have consequences for people’s well-being and biodiversity.
The exhibition provides some ideas. One feature on display is the GraviPlant project – a rotating plant supply system that makes it possible to plant trees on house facades when there isn’t enough green space on the ground. Such plants would also help prevent buildings from getting too hot in the summertime, too.
The exhibition returns repeatedly to Berlin, asking for example how traffic can be organized differently, and how to imagine participatory cities? What sustainable building materials are available? These questions and more encourage visitors to think about the Berlin of tomorrow.
The exhibition presents numerous options for action on the important questions of our times, but it does not impose a particular set of answers.
“We don’t say where the journey will take us,” says Stefan Brandt, the director of the Futurium. “We only say what roads there are that can be taken. We don’t know exactly where these roads end, nor can we say today what obstacles and hindrances might be found along these routes.”
The museum does, however, take a firm line on one thing: “Conspiracy theories, superstition, things that cannot be scientifically proven – we don’t provide any space for such notions,” says Brandt.
The museum itself has plans for the future, as its permanent exhibition is to be extended to include the topic of mobility by 2021. Thereafter, it is to be continuously updated and long term plans include temporary exhibitions, too.
It is also on the move, with plans underway for a mobile Futurium, to be brought out of Berlin and into other areas.
No decision has been made yet as to whether an entry fee will be charged after 2022 but right now, it’s free for all.
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