Hundertwasser

Ronald McDonald House

2004-2005

Unterm Sternenzelt 1, 45147 Essen, Germany

In August 1999 Hundertwasser drew the initial sketches for this centre built for the families of children being treated for serious medical conditions at the university clinic in Essen. It is one of fourteen Ronald McDonald houses in Germany, in which family members are given an opportunity to feel at home while their children are undergoing extended clinical treatment. Hundertwasser chose a site in the middle of Gruga Park, accepting the commission because he was interested not only in the social and human components, but also in demonstrating that the building could be constructed without destroying nature, indeed, that after the building was completed there would be even more nature than before.

These were also the conditions that made it possible to locate the building in the middle of a nature preserve in one of Germany's most famous parks. The building was created in harmony with both nature and man's individual