ABSTRACT
The university was initially accommodated in the scattered private villas of leafy Dahlem and former buildings of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The first purpose-built structure opened in 1954. The Henry Ford Building was designed by Berlin architects Franz Heinrich Sobotka and Gustav Müller to house teaching rooms and an auditorium. Inspired by the maxim ‘democracy as client’, the architects sought to saturate the building with light symbolic of freedom and openness. The length of its façade is a glass wall punctuated by white pillars, creating an impression of lightness despite the building’s large footprint.
