Mäusebunker, one of Europe’s largest animal testing facilities was designed and built in the 60s to reflect the common understanding of human-non-human relations of that time.The brutalist concrete structure soon gained fame, not only for its appearance but also for its use. Its high hygiene and security standards made the building inaccessible to the public, which created a certain myth of what was happening behind closed walls, doors, holes, and tubes.
Soon after its opening, the first protests against the institution began to form but it took a long time before it eventually closed in 2020. It was declared to be demolished as the reuse of the typology seemed both uneconomical and unrealistic. Thus, the city did not want to impose high costs on its citizens.
Alternative to its intended demolition, a proposal is to be made for the iconic brutalist building: it will be transformed architecturally and ideologically by developing a spatial strategy for it to become a laboratory for architecture, art, and research on multi-species cohabitation.