Weström, Ute
Biographical Note
Ute Westrom was born in 1939 in Berlin, Germany. She was oldest of four children of Hilde Westrom, a well-known early woman architect. In 1959, Ute Westrom studied psychology, philosophy, and sociology at the University of Hamburg. In the same year, she began her study of architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. While a student, Westrom worked for an architect in Lubeck, Germany in 1962, for the municipal planning office in Paris in 1963, and toured North Africa and the Middle East. She graduated in 1968 with an architect's diploma from the Technical University of Berlin.
Between 1972 and 1984, Westrom was involved with the design and construction of at least 320 apartments throughout Berlin, primarily for a low-income, municipal housing project funded by the Railway Building Association. During this period, she also designed individual houses, furnishings, and won various design competitions.
From 1977 through 1984, Westrom became increasingly involved with the conversion of old buildings for new uses, many as museums. In the process, she designed and implemented new forms of lighting, furnishings, display cases and panels for organizations such as the Berlin Hall of Fine Arts, the Berlin Gallery, and the Brohan Museum. Of particular importance was her collaboration with partner and husband Winnetou Kampmann in the reconstruction of the former Museum of Applied Arts, built in the late nineteenth-century by Martin Gropius and known as the Martin-Gropius-Bau, into an international art center. The restoration of the 1877 landmark was necessary after it was destroyed during in an air raid during World War II. Another notable project was her original design for a new office building for the Sozialkasse des Berliner Baugewerbes in Berlin. Westrom continues to be active in designing office buildings, town planning projects, museum expansions, and condominiums throughout Berlin.