Berlin's 6 Functionalist buildings are concentrated in the city's research and industrial campuses — structures where form follows scientific function with particular directness. The Adlershof science complex contributes three entries: Horst Welser's spherical laboratories, purpose-built as geometric vessels for controlled experiments, and Werner Deutschmann and Hermann Brenner's wind tunnel and engine test bench, where aerodynamic requirements shaped every surface.
Albert Speer's Schwerbelastungskörper — a 12,000-tonne concrete cylinder built to test whether Berlin's sandy soil could support a planned triumphal arch — is Functionalism taken to its most literal extreme: a building whose only function is to be heavy. The BESSY synchrotron facilities by Gerd Hänska and Brenner & Partner round out the collection with precision-engineered research infrastructure where particle physics dictated the architecture.
