In August 2023 the proposal to the art-for-architecture competition for the Behördenzentrum Rostock (Rostock Public Offices Centre; see Report 02/2023) was submitted in a more fully developed form for the second round of the competition. The proposal entitled “Entfaltungsraum” (Space for Development) foresees a system of sculptures at the entrances to the different offices and thus serves the purpose of orientation. The departments are the Staatliches Amt für Landwirtschaft und Umwelt – Mittleres Mecklenburg (StALU-MM; State Office for Agriculture and the Environment – Central Mecklenburg), the Amt für Raumordnung und Landesplanung – Region Rostock (AfRL-RR; Office of Spatial and State Planning), the Landesamt für Verkehr und Straßenbau (LS M-V; State Office for Traffic and Roadbuilding), and the Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales (LAGuS; State Office for Health and Social Welfare).
at the entrance
to the LAGuS
23-18-001
at the entrance
to the AfRL-RR
and the StALU-MM
23-18-002
at the entrance
to the LS M-V
23-18-003
the main entrance
23-18-004
the main entrance
23-18-005
the main entrance
23-18-006
The four departments accommodated in the building make a common promise to citizens: space for development. For all the differences between the fields of work of the offices, in their purpose they have a common denominator. Spatial and state planning is about room for development per se. The other departments are concerned with space for ecological, mobility or social development.
The art concept is a visual interpretation of space for development by means of linear sculptures. Seen individually, they project into a space; seen together, they open up a space for development and enclose it at the same time. The four sculptures differ in their individual forms, but above all through differences of colour: the colours of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In their lines they resemble living plants, suggesting development. As a four-part sculptural group, they stand on the wide space in front of the building. Here they stand for the whole of the Behördenzentrum and refer to its four-part structure. As individual sculptures they stand in front of the entrances to the departments to which they relate.
The sculptures serve as spatial symbols for orientation. They can equally be transferred to two-dimensional designs and thus used for systems of orientation within the building, and beyond that for communication in print or online. In this way the work of art could be anchored in the everyday life of the public offices.