Humboldt-Universität Berlin

The Prinz-Heinrich-Palais, now the main building of Humboldt-Universität Berlin, was built in 1748 and has historical monument status. As a building of particular significance in Berlin-Mitte, it not only fulfils its purpose as an office and administrative headquarters, but also as a venue for student education. It contains lecture halls, seminar rooms and a canteen. The main building of the HU Berlin was the focus of attention on account of its considerable maintenance backlog and renovation requirements.

The forthcoming construction measures are motivated by significant damage to the building envelope, the need to bring the structural fire safety up to the current building regulations standard and to comprehensively replace outdated building services and installations, where this has not already been carried out by the university since 1990. The Baroque style has been optimally reconstructed using historical plaster mixtures.
For the imposing cornice profile with a span of approx. 1.70 m, a rail construction including a template was built by the contractor in order to render the entire span of the cornice in one go. A stainless-steel mesh with ribbed expanded metal was made as a substructure, which was moulded with the base plaster and thus formed the base for the profiling of the rendering.
The upper part of the façade was finished with grooved plaster, the lower part with ashlar plaster as a chafed structure adapted to the historical structure and colour of the existing façade.
The joints in the grooves and ashlar plaster were worked into the plaster layer using a special stucco plasterer’s tool, a finisher.
To finish, a slurry coat and a glaze were applied, in keeping with the historical appearance of the façade.