Over the Roofs of Tomorrow

The roof of Futurium in Berlin is both an accessible city terrace and a piece of environmental technology, conceived as part of the museum’s narrative about possible futures. Architecturally, it forms a shallow basin: the sloping planes channel all rainwater to a low point, where it is collected in a cistern and reused for cooling and other non‑potable purposes, turning a simple downpour into part of the building’s technical cycle.

Almost the entire roof is covered by a dense field of photovoltaic and solar‑thermal modules – sometimes described as a “solar sea” – which supply a substantial share of Futurium’s own electricity and heat demand and support its minimum‑energy, BNB‑Gold certification.



Unusually for a technology roof of this kind, visitors are allowed onto it: a skywalk leads around the upper edge, offering views over the Spree, the government district, and the Chancellery, so the public can literally walk on the energy landscape. A bit of trivia: the architects designed roof, façade, and technical systems as one integrated envelope, so the building’s futuristic image is inseparable from the way it manages sun and water.