Berlin - Franco Stella, the Italian architect appointed to
rebuild Berlin's royal palace from the ground up, was defended Monday
from critics by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Stella, a professor who favours classic buildings rebuilt as
modern replicas, has been attacked by Berlin architects, who claimed
he did not meet entrance qualifications to design the old-new palace.
Hermann Parzinger, chairman of the state-funded foundation which
is to rebuild the palace, ignored those critics, saying in Berlin,
'The collaboration works.
'Franco Stella understands the needs of the building's future
users very well.'
Three out of four facades of the new palace, to be known as the
Humboldt Forum, will be identical to those of the Kaisers' 18th-
century town house, which stood on the site before the Second World
War.
A back wall and the interior will be new designs. A library and
university lecture theatres will be inside, with the space and uses
to be allocated this year.
Parzinger said he anticipated Stella showing off the completed
building as chief architect in 2013.
A Berlin magazine, Art, has quoted critics who allege Stella was
not entitled to submit a design because he did not operate a large
enough practice or have sufficient revenues before he won the plum
contract.
But a lawyer for Stella, Michael Pietzcker, said there was no
truth to the allegations.
Stella's design for the reconstruction of the building razed by
communist authorities in 1950 was chosen by judges from a short-list
of 30 entries in November.
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