The house prison

Topografie des Terrors, Berlin

Completed: 2023

For the exhibition “A Police Custody of a Special Kind” - The House Prison of the Secret State Police Office in Berlin 1933-1945, Architectura Virtualis realized three exhibits with the design office Matthies Weber & Schnegg, Berlin.

The entrance exhibit explains the history of the Topography of Terror site, presents the institutions of National Socialist terror located there and locates the house prison in this larger spatial context using acrylic glass models illuminated from below.

A second exhibit shows the history of the building and the functional areas of the house prison as a 3D animation.

The third exhibit was located in a darkened room-in-room situation. Visitors could choose from 20 terms such as “fainting”, “food” or “hygiene” and listen to stories from former prisoners. At the same time, the corresponding places in the prison were marked synchronously on a floor plan.