Description

It was only after the decision was made to move the seat of government to Berlin in June 1992 that Bonn was able to fulfill the dream – cherished since 1949 – of an art and exhibition venue. The Vienna architect Gustav Peichl won the competition that was eventually separated from the municipal project of an art museum and specially initiated by the Federal Government.

The architect reacted to the existing urban situation – a square plot of land in faceless surroundings that was to function as a counterpart to the municipal art museum of approximately the same size – with the design of a compact block measuring 96 x 96 metres, whose severe austerity is not only relativized by three cones on the roof, but virtually subverted. These blue ceramic cones of different heights and with glass points function as sources of light for the interior, but above all, they signal something exceptional, directing attention – in particular when they are illuminated at night – to the ‘fifth façade,’ the roof, which is accessed via steep stairs, providing additional exhibition space primarily for sculptures.

The two-storey interior is laid out as a central area and a peripheral zone which contains all the service facilities and the administration, etc. on the ground floor, and on the upper floor, several gallery-like exhibition rooms. Visitors access in succession the entrance, a tall slit in the wall shifted to the corner – the wiggly lines of the floor paving playfully direct one to this – and then an intimate triangular forecourt that is only separated from the spacious foyer by a fluted glass façade. From there, visitors access the large hall that occupies the entire height of the building, the open, two-storey atrium, and the auditorium. Creating the form of a tholos, slender columns that mark the position of the three light cones admittedly form exciting architectural accents within the otherwise entirely open rooms, but at the same time, they prevent the spaces from being really flexible, as is required for the presentation of very different exhibitions usually shown in parallel.

wettbewerbe aktuell 10/1986, pp. 587-598 and 7/1992, pp. 95-100 • Transparent 18/1987, pp. 4-16 • Deutsche Bauzeitung 8/1989, pp. 34-37 (Heinrich Schlüter) • Baumeister 9/1992, pp. 21-25 (Wolfgang Bachmann) • Bauwelt 26/1992, pp. 1528-1537 • Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ed. Bundesministerium für Raumordnung, Bauwesen und Städtebau, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, 1992 • Die Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Architekt Gustav Peichl, Stuttgart, 1992 • Deutsche Bauzeitung 4/1993, pp. 40-49 (Ingeborg Flagge) • The Architectural Review 1151/1993, pp. 58-64 • Frank Maier-Solgk, Die neuen Museen, Cologne, 2002, pp. 80-89

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