New build: Deutsche Sinti & Roma

The most important public representation of Europe’s largest minority population is located in Heidelberg’s Old Town: the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma. »We are a center that documents the achievements and history of German Sinti and Roma by means of exhibitions, and through countless events makes cultural coexistence a reality as part of the majority society,« explains Emran Elmazi, Managing Director of the Documentation and Cultural Center.

The center opened in the early 1990s and since that time has been home to a permanent exhibition on the Holocaust committed against the Sinti and Roma and to Europe’s largest archive on the 600-year cultural history of the European Sinti and Roma. However, after over 20 years of energetic work, the building housing the center, which is financially supported by the German Federal government and the State of Baden Württemberg, has reached its limits. »Spatial reorganization of the institution will, in interplay with the modern new build, transform the Center into a flexible venue for dynamic cultural interaction«, comments Emran Elmazi.

In the closed, two-phase competition, architectural practices from all over Europe were invited to propose an intelligent urban planning solution for the Center’s spatial requirements. For the new build is intended not only to make the Center more visible and thus open it up to society, but also to house a new permanent exhibition and provide rooms for touring exhibitions, conferences, and events. From among the 25 entries submitted, Stuttgart-based architectural practice bez+kock architekten won the competition with a powerful design for the wedge-shaped site, one relying on the red sandstone typical of Heidelberg. An inviting staircase opens the building out to the city and leads to a podium which offers barrier-free access, while a spacious foyer with rooms for events is rounded out on the upper stories by exhibition halls that offer a view of the city and the surroundings. The new build ensures that the cultural and political work of the Sinti and Roma, as undertaken by the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, will have a pan-European impact.