Erfurt | dimitra figa

BENEDIKTPLATZ ERFURT, DE 1997

Architectural competition with Dolle und Gross Architects, Düsseldorf

The subject of the competition was the design of an urban, mixed-use building, on the corner of the Benediktplatz, in the historic city of Erfurt. An old Jewish synagogue-the oldest surviving in Germany- lies at the back of the given site, enclosed in the medieval block. In its basement, remains of the old city wall are still traceable.

We proposed a building that breaks up in two parts, and reveals, through the crack, the imposing volume of the synagogue. The segments of this broken building are formed and set around this void, which is also a passage to the interior courtyard of the block and the historic synagogue.

The position on the plot, the shape and the proportions of solids and void, respond and interact with the irregular old urban tissue, the deformed old medieval houses and the steep roofscape of the surrounding.