Advanced landscape integration
Introduction
Günter Behnisch (Dresden, Germany, June 12, 1922-Stuttgart, Germany, July 12, 2010) was a German architect. During World War II he became one of Germany's youngest submarine commanders. Later Behnisch was one of the most prominent architects representing deconstructivism.[1].
It had offices in Stuttgart, Germany since 1952 and Los Angeles, CA, USA since 1999.
Early years
Behnisch was the second of three children in a family in Lockwitz, near Dresden. He attended several schools, due to the fact that his father was a social democrat and was arrested, dismissed and transferred to Chemnitz by the new Nazi government.
In 1939, Behnisch volunteered to join the navy (Kriegsmarine), at age 17, which was a less onerous alternative to conscription or conscription.[2] He eventually became a submarine officer and served aboard U-952. In October 1944, he became one of the youngest submarine commanders when he commanded U-2337. At the end of the Second World War, he surrendered his submarine to the British and became a prisoner of war at Featherstone Castle in Northumberland.
Behnisch initially trained as a bricklayer[2] and then, in 1947, enrolled to study architecture at the Technical University of Stuttgart.[4] From 1967 to 1987 he was a professor of architectural/building design and industrial construction technology at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.[5].
Career in architecture
Behisch established his own architectural studio in Stuttgart in 1952, which in 1966 became Behnisch & Partner.
His son Stefan Behnisch established a separate firm, Behnisch Architekten, in 1989.
One of Günter Behnisch's most notable works was the renovation of the building for the new parliament in the capital of then West Germany, Bonn. Although it won the architectural design competition in 1973, construction only began in 1987 and was completed in 1992. The Bundeshaus (Federal House) in Bonn is a complex of buildings that served as the provisional headquarters of the West German Parliament, and thus the German Bundestag and Bundesrat "Federal Council (Germany)"), from 1949 to 1999. The main building, built between 1930 and 1933, it served as a Pedagogical Academy until the end of World War II. This structure became the provisional headquarters of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat after the resolution of the of the FRG in 1949 in favor of Bonn. For more than forty years it served as the headquarters of both German constitutional bodies. The Bundeshaus was expanded and renovated numerous times, until these institutions were moved to Berlin after the (Capital Resolution) in 1999, nine years after German reunification. The chamber then became the "Internationale Kongresszentrum Bundeshaus Bonn", currently known as the "World Conference Center Bonn", where national and international conferences are held.