The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is a place for international contemporary arts with a focus on non-European cultures and societies. Its name translated in English is “The House of the World’s Cultures”. It is located in Germany’s capital city of Berlin between the Spree River and the Tiergarten Park near Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building.
The construction of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt was completed in 1957 and comprises a 1,024 seat auditorium and concert hall, a 300 seat theater, three conference rooms, two multifunctional foyers, a bar, a restaurant, a shop and a 5,400 square meter roof terrace used for open air concerts and as an outdoor cafe. The various halls are used to presents artistic productions from around the world including visual arts, music, literature, performing arts, films, digital media and academic discussions.
The dominating feature of the building is its roof which seems to float in thin air. The building has been nicknamed the “pregnant oyster” because the roof is round with a gently curve and has hidden pearls to discover inside. The photos below help to see the curves of the roof from several different viewpoints.
The two photos below show the Haus der Kulturen der Welt from the Teirgarten park entrance and the Spree River entrance making it is Berlin’s only event venue with its own riverboat station.
Each summer the Haus der Kulturen der Welt is home to the Wassermusik (meaning water music) summer festival that is themed to a different part of the world each year. The festival consists of concerts, films and literature. The 2022 theme is “The Mississippi is the cradle of American music” and will include jazz, funk, blues, Cajun, zydeco, R&B and folk music.
Most of my follower know that one of my favorite times to photograph is the late evening and at night time. The final photos on this post are a series of photos taken as the evening transitioned into night. These photos highlight that the unique architecture of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt is not hidden by the darkness but it is also beautiful at night.
The Dust on My Shoes
One of my favorite unforeseen experiences from my travels has been discovering new cultures, learning how other people live their lives and seeing many different ways other people do things. It has opened my eyes to learning that a similar goal can be accomplished in many different ways.
My travels have shown me that just because other people do things differently than the culture that I came from we have very similar desires for our life.
The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is a great venue for letting people from Berlin get exposures to other cultures without needing to travel around the world.
We plan our travels to experience places that we desire to see and do things that we can’t do in the places where we live but sometimes the unforeseen experiences of learning about the cultures of the places we visit can be just as valuable as the experiences that we traveled to see.
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