turn that bunker into our World Headquarters, dang!! A former Nazi bunker in Germany is being turned into a luxury hotel with a 5-storey roof garden
The rendering shows many windows in the flak tower below the top-level hotel and a list of possible tenants. If the walls are 3.5 meters thick they have a lot of concrete to remove to get light in. They should be flared on the inside like castles where archers could see at angles but that is even more concrete to remove. C-4 anyone? It will cost a few euros to stay there!!
It is a modern day 'castle' and like virtually all such it has a dark past attributed to it. Millions visit the Tower of London yet how many atrocities were committed there? According to a Rick Steve's Travel bit on PBS these aren't cost effective or safe to bring down so if you can make it useful and 'pretty', why not?
book me now!!! ......my nephew got to visit one of the flak towers great view of the area from the top the Germans built a lot of ''wonder structures''' ...very interesting how they built those massive structures back then ..too bad they blew up the Fuhrerbunker.....that would be something to spend a night in ..those night bombings had to have been very eerie/etc....the loud droning of hundreds of aircraft..and then the AAA...fire/chaos/etc
For what it's worth, I can't foresee this occurring. The idea of placing windows through walls which are several meters thick is - at best - nearly impossible to fathom. This seems like another one of those eye-candy "next generation" architecture ideas that goes nowhere but generate a lot of buzz on the internet. Perhaps Professor Gaines can weigh in on this? Is the rooftop garden and ramp structure financially feasible? I've stayed in many NH Hotels and they are nothing special. I believe most are considered "European" 4-star hotels, which (at least from what I've seen) is more like a "North American" 3-star. I just don't see this idea being financially feasible. Sure, I'd pay a premium to stay in a Flakturm converted to a nice hotel, but will others? And how much of a premium?
I'm led to believe the place has about six windows already, as part of the original design. Wouldn't imagine that would be anywhere near enough, though. Can't imagine staying in a place with no natural light.
do they really need windows? if they have the top for viewing? ..in fact, I would not want windows--I would want it as it was during the war.... ..I don't go to hotels much, but when I do, I could care less if there is a window
Clearly there are a lot of unknowns about this project. A virtually intact flak tower is not an easy thing to alter, change nor raze. My first thought is financially feasible. It is to have 136 rooms, not large by hotel standards, the usual cafe/restaurant/bar stuff. My second thought was about its feasibility as a structure, is it sound enough? It was obviously strong but over the years heavy things settle, rebar rust and expands, etc. But with modern methods cores can be drilled, new threaded rods epoxied in, etc.. This may be Internet fluff, no serious studies done. Or is may have been investigated thoroughly by forensic engineers. There is no indication of either in the article. I have read post about it that say the windows were there all along and it has been occupied by various tenants after the war. The only similar structure I have seen are the 5 or so towers in Vienna with few deliberate penetrations but some evidence of cracking and cable wrapping to hold some of them together. They have made one into an aquarium but I was there before that. The cantilevered flak gun "pedals" look like they are vulnerable to deterioration on the Vienna towers. I am skeptical of it ever opening but would be interested if it did. The hotel is proposed to sit in a new structure on top of the tower, the rooftop gardens above that. which means elevators, fire stairs, HVAC, etc. A thorough study would have shown computer drawings of the structure in both plan and section as well as new photographic renderings. But there is big money out there at present so someone or group may be serious. I, of course, being born in Alabama in 1940 never experienced WW2 and realize the flak towers might hold terrible memories for older people in the places that have them. But I find Vienna a truly lovely city and found the towers there visually appearing to me be they in a park or tightly surrounded by modern buildings. But I like sub pens. castles, fortifications, etc. of all types. The imagination of a child in an old body! Recently a client told me I was being too practical. I told him given the budget he gave me he should be glad I was! It sounds a bit like this story!
