Museum Barberini, Potsdam – Reconstruction of the façades

Barberini Palace was built in 1771/72 at the request of King Frederick II. It was a stately baroque palace in the immediate vicinity of the Potsdam City Palace. During the Second World War the building was damaged so badly that it had to be demolished. Reconstructed on the site of the Barberini Palace and officially opened to the public in January 2017, the Museum Barberini primarily houses a collection of paintings owned by Hasso Plattner.

In reconstructing the palazzo with its magnificent façades, architects Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht restored the integrity of the Alter Markt (Old Market Square) by returning one of its centrepieces. This was recognised by Stadtbild Deutschland e.V. by choosing the palace as “Building of the Year 2016”.

We manufactured the reconstructed façades in the Old Market Square and the inner courtyard. We drafted the corresponding blueprints, drawings and statics calculations. Based on this we produced the workpieces and installed them at the construction site in a short amount of time.

The façade is constructed as a masonry wall, where brick work, precast concrete parts and natural stone masonry creates a solid façade. With an average thickness of 36 cm, the masonry wall rests on the foundation and is adorned with natural stone elements such as plinths, window and door frames, cornices and balustrades and complex sculptural work including columns of different orders and ornamental vases. These workpieces are made from Postaer Sandstein “Alte Poste” and Königgrätzer Sandstein.

In addition to the natural stone, sculptural and masonry work, we completed all of the other façade works such as plastering, painting including the Rabitz wire plaster ceilings and plumbing with subcontractors and thus provided a full façade package.