A new building presents itself in the center of the New Berlin – the Science Center Medical
Technology at Potsdamer Platz. The new building is the representative office in the capital city
for the medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH, which is based in
Duderstadt. In an interdisciplinary planning and design process, the building owners Otto Bock,
the team of Gnädinger Architects and the media designers Art+Com developed this unique
stage for the topic of movement, which is the first of it's kvisitors to "discover what moves us". Admission is free.
The architecture
Starting from the idea of human muscle fibers, the Berlin architectural firm Gnädinger was
assigned the task of creating an amorphous, abstract façade, which wraps dynamically
around the six-storey, reinforced concrete frame, encompassing around 1,000 square
meters of floor space. Behind the extravagant exterior with its convex and concave,
tapered lines, three levels serve as exhibition space on over 500 square meters. The fourth
level is for training and conference rooms and the top floor serves as a dialogue platform
for interdisciplinary communication between doctors, patients, therapists, orthopedic
technicians and manufacturers.
The outer shell, an expressive aluminum and glass façade, is unusual for the city of Berlin, and
provides a kind of acupuncture of new architecture amongst Berlin's traditional stone buildings
and glassy modernism. In the immediate vicinity of buildings by architects ranging from Richard
Rogers, Renzo Piano, Helmut Jahn, Hans Kollhoff to gmp, this compact structure demonstrates a confident independence. The architectural design was intended to bring high-tech and nature
together in a harmonious manner. The organically-formed, white exterior buckled bands encircle
the rounded body of the building, based on the model of human muscle fibers, a metaphor for
the simulation of complex biological processes and structures.
Running 12 meters high along the north and west façades is the so-called "Walker", a motion
simulation using 15 points of light that visually depict the theme of "walking" in the city space.
The 15 points represent the great joints of the body, through the movement of which the
physique, gender and mood of the walker can be recognized.
The exhibition - "Discover what moves us"
The Science Center Medical Technology hosts an exhibition that was developed both for the
general public as well as professionals, with the theme of technical and medical movement at its
center. Playful demonstrations and interactive media stations illustrate the complexity of the
human motor function and how sophisticated medical technology must be in order to act as a
substitute for nature. The exhibits make it possible to experience "walking" and "grasping" with
one's own hands and feet, and sensitizes visitors to the importance of everyday movements and
describes their scientific backgrounds. The Science Center bridges the gap between nature
and technology, takes a look at bionic research and shows how natural functions can be
transferred to technical aids.
Otto Bock HealthCare - a world leader in prosthetics
The medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare, founded in Berlin in 1919 by Otto
Bock, is a world leader in prosthetics and a leading supplier of innovative products for people
with reduced mobility. Since 1990, Professor Hans Georg Näder, grandson of the founder, has
continued to run this medium-sized family business to a global player. Today the company has
40 locations for distribution and service worldwide, and exports its leading technology to 140 countries.
