Description

In sight of the theatre by Hans Scharoun and next to the cultural centre by Alvar Aalto, the Kunstmuseum was to define a new entrance to the city centre. The Hamburg office of Schweger + Partner designed a building that as a “city loggia” narrows the access to the pedestrian zone and thereby creates an entrance situation that is still further emphasized by the roof jutting far out. While the southern façade appears to be a closed factory wall, the museum opens toward the culture centre opposite in demonstrative openness and turns out to be a largely transparent cube surrounded by slender columns more than 17 metres tall supporting the projecting roof which appears to be filigree in spite of its size. A glazed rotunda marks the entrance at the northwestern corner of the museum. Like the urbanistically sensible diagonally placed external ramp to the café, this rotunda also breaks the strict grid structure of the building.

The arrangement of the ground plan of the museum is clear and easy to grasp. Around a square hall (whose sides are five times as long as those of the basic 8.10 metre grid) that takes up the entire height of the building are grouped on two levels partly open, partly closed rooms that are flexibly adaptable, so that all the walls, for example, have interchangeable surfaces. From the surrounding gallery one recognizes the impressive spatial effect of the great hall, but also the technical difficulties associated with exhibiting in it. On the eastern side, across from the entrance, an open sculpture courtyard is attached, the same length and half the width of the central hall and surrounded by ateliers, depots, and administrative offices.

The high-tech appearance of this architecture consisting primarily of steel and glass corresponds to the technical refinement above all of the extraordinarily sophisticated lighting system. A micro-grid integrated in the laminated glass of the ceilings and the side walls filters the sunlight coming in that after­wards can still be broken by reflectors and selectively directed. Finally, in addition to a system for supplementing the daylight, there is also an artificial lighting system for entirely closed rooms as well as for evenings and nights.

wettbewerbe aktuell, 6/1989, pp. 359-370 • Bauwelt 35/1993, pp. 1798-99 • Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Architekten Schweger + Partner, Berlin, 1994 • Baukultur 1-2/1995, pp. 15-17 • Frank Maier-Solgk, Die neuen Museen, Cologne, 2002, pp. 247-255

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Originally published in: Paul von Naredi-Rainer, Museum Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2004.