On January 3, 2020, the gmp Founding Partner Is Celebrating His Birthday
Today, Meinhard von Gerkan, founding partner of gmp, is celebrating his 85th birthday. Starting with the large Berlin Tegel Airport project in the 1960s, von Gerkan has made a significant contribution to architecture in the Federal Republic of Germany. Today, gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners is one of the largest German architectural practices, with an international presence and over 500 employees. Three important events took place in Meinhard von Gerkan’s 85th year: in April 2019, his first commercial project, Tegel Airport, was listed as a historic monument. In September 2019 in Beijing, von Gerkan received the highest accolade for architects in China, the Liang Sicheng Architecture Prize.
Furthermore, 2019 was the year in which gmp celebrated 20 years of architectural activity in China which, beginning with the German School in Beijing and the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center, von Gerkan had energeti cally driven following his retirement from Braunschweig Technical University. In Germany, his practice has completed 280 projects located throughout all Federal States, but particularly in Hamburg and Berlin. On the international stage, gmp has completed about 200 projects to date.From the very beginning, von Gerkan committed himself to a generalist understanding of the architectur- al profession, and aligned his work accordingly. He designs architecture at all scales and within all design phases, from the inception of the initial idea to completion. This approach is based on his view that the princi- ple of design is basically always the same in spite of the variations that are necessarily involved in each special project, irrespective of the professional field. It is no surprise therefore that he has devoted himself to the entire breadth of architectural design, from product design through to the design of an entire city. Similarly, von Gerkan sees it as part of his profession as an architect to take part in the public debate on architecture, both in verbal and written form.“Finding appropriate and acceptable solutions to the design of our environment means being prepared to enter into a dialog and to adjust one’s own approach to the conditions of the respective project. The decision as to what and how to build is made by society, with its complicated political and commercial mechanisms. We as architects are not only obliged to enter into this dialog, but we also carry the responsibility for this and for participating in the discourse on the basis of our own conviction.”
