Berlin, Germany
1992-1999 CE Foster and Partners

The transparent cupola atop the Plenary Chamber takes its cue from the original structure (1894), housing a reborn curia imperialis: a Reichstag. The Old Reichstag burned in 1934 and the assembly was subsumed into the Third Reich. Following the formal reunification of Germany in 1990, the darkened hulk was envisioned to become the embodiment of which that governments seek to publicly demonstrate. Norman Foster’s concept sketch showed the "light sculptor," which hangs poised like the Sword of Damocles over the assembly. Metus est plena tyrannis... "the tyrant is filled with fear." Honesty and fairness, indeed, hang by a thread.