ICC Berlin – an architectural monster too big to fail?

Berlin’s ICC is architectural madness at its finest. Designed by Ralf Schüler and Ursulina Schüler-Witte and completed in 1979, this aluminum colossus represents engineering genius incarnate – covering an entire traffic island between highway, Messedamm and Kantstraße. 

The building’s unique hanging structure defies gravity, suspending massive conference halls above the urban chaos like a spaceship preparing for takeoff. The gigantic roof superstructure visible from everywhere and the piston-like tubes on the sides are in fact not so much decoration but are essentially carrying the entire complex.

Inside, the 70s sci-fi aesthetic explodes with retro-futuristic passion – soft curves, metallic surfaces, and that unmistakable space-age optimism. In my below interior photos AI helped me to introduce a singer, an astronaut, and a clerk to emphasise the outlandish atmosphere of the place. 

While these pictures are imaginations – although the interiors themselves are not –, the photo below showing the orange subway space leading to ICC is a documentary shot with no hand from AI. That’s how close the real world and an imaginary one get here.

Initially the ICC functioned well as a congress location with two gigantic auditoriums accommodating over 20,000 participants which could merge into one mega-venue, creating a cathedral of human communication.

The 80s and 90s were its golden era, hosting congresses that shaped global discourse. But this vision of the future proved too ambitious – closed since 2014, now protected as a listed monument since 2019 ICC’s future is rather uncertain. Applications for its redesign and repurpose run through July 2025.

This is architecture as pure ambition – a machine for intellectual exchange that reached too far into tomorrow. Superb and completely over the top, the ICC is Berlin’s beautiful white elephant.