Kreuzbauten, Architectural heritage monument in Hochkreuz, Bad Godesberg, Germany.
Kreuzbauten is an architectural ensemble in Bad Godesberg, Bonn, made up of two cross-shaped towers, four smaller buildings with square floor plans, and three pavilions. The different structures are linked by courtyards and pathways, forming a connected layout across several levels.
The complex was built in the early 1970s to house federal ministries in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, including the Ministry of Justice and departments for Education and Research. The original plan called for seven buildings, but concerns about urban scale led to the project being reduced to two towers.
The outdoor grounds were partly designed by Cologne painter and sculptor Jürgen Hans Grümmer. His works include a stone circle of carved basalt steles that serves as a roundabout and a rest island for pedestrians and staff, and the courtyard Polyphems Spielzeug, filled with basalt sculptures. The sculptor Ansgar Nierhoff contributed Plastische Kreuzung (1977).
The grounds are a secured federal site, not open to the public: since the 1990s a fence and video cameras have replaced the NATO wire that once ringed the complex. The buildings can therefore only be viewed from the surrounding public streets — Godesberger Allee to the west, Heinemannstraße to the north, Langer Grabenweg to the east and Max-Löbner-Straße to the south.
The complex was planned as the start of a 1968 Joachim Schürmann design for a government quarter with seven cross-shaped buildings to house all federal ministries. Public criticism and plans to keep the Rheinaue as a landscape park stopped the scheme, so only two towers were built.
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