Goethe-Institute Rangun

Since May 2018, the Goethe-Institut in Yangon is being housed in a colonial villa from the 1920s and various new buildings. The Berlin architects OLIVER GERHARTZ Architektur and TSSB architekten.ingenieure were contracted with the renovation of the villa, the construction of the new buildings and the design of the outdoor facilities as part of an architectural competition by the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. The architects have been successfully working abroad for several years together with the planning office for technical equipment, Heimann Ingenieure, and the GSE Ingenieur-Gesellschaft for Structural Engineering, also from Berlin.

The plan was to preserve the generosity of the park-like grounds with its high tree population and to harmonize them with supplements to the space schedule of the Goethe-Institut.

The historic villa, the central object on the site, was renovated in consultation with the local heritage authorities and appears outwardly unchanged. Classrooms, a part of the administration and exhibition areas are housed there.

To the side of the villa was erected an elongated two-storey building to accommodate the library and the event hall. The building is oriented, as well as the other two new buildings in a traditional local architectural style. This contrasts with the colonial architectural style of the much older historic villa without questioning its dominance.

Both buildings meet the highest requirements for building services, earthquakes (EUROCODE 8), fire protection, sound insulation and building physics.

Other new buildings include a cafeteria with a kitchen opposite the new building and a residential building for a caretaker. Both buildings fulfil high local building standards.

The construction work was carried out by local general contractors (building construction GU and TGA GU), except for the roof covering. This required planning based on local crafting options and available products. Nevertheless, the standards required on the basis of German regulations caused a special challenge for the architectural site management.