Realisation competition for the State Museums' competence centre decided: Berlin museum courtyards take shape
Press release from 02/21/2007
Architects Harris + Kurrle from Stuttgart have won the competition to realise the northern part of the Museumshöfe, an extension to the Museum Island in Berlin. Yesterday, a jury chaired by Prof. Arno Lederer decided in favour of the design, which is characterised by two overlapping, horizontally emphasised axes. It envisages a sand-coloured clinker brick façade with louvre-shaped windows. The longitudinal axis is lined with a row of sculptures towards the Monbijou Bridge. 28 architectural firms took part in the realisation competition organised by the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR). Berlin architects Schweger Assoziierte and Heinle, Wischer und Partner were awarded second and third place respectively. The southern construction phase with a gallery building planned in the previous ideas competition will be reserved for another competition.
In its statement, the jury emphasised: "The work impresses with its structural simplicity and consistency. Two interlocking stone volumes create a self-confident solution for the urban planning situation that manages without unnecessary additive elements."
The museum courtyards consist of a listed V-shaped former barracks complex in the neo-Renaissance style and an open space to be built on. The subject of the competition was a new building on an area of 6,800square metres, which is to be developed in two phases. 8.4 million is available for the realisation of the first phase. The result will be a centre of excellence for the Prussian State Museums with depots, workshops, administrative offices, study libraries and collections. The plans fulfil a requirement of the "Museum Island Master Plan", which envisages the relocation of internal museum functions from the Museum Island to the Museum Courtyards. The building project is located on the opposite bank of the Kupfergraben from the Bode Museum. The planning task of the competition was to complete the existing buildings with a new section and to make both parts appear as an independent whole. The design by Harris + Kurrle succeeded in finding differentiated answers to the conditions of the competition. The preserved barracks wing was to be closed off by the new extension in such a way that the eaves height and surrounding roof structures were preserved. In addition, the museum courtyards were to create an architectural transition between the Museum Island and its wider neighbourhood of Humboldt University, the State Library and the German Historical Museum. The designs were therefore expected to create a path axis to the neighbouring Bode Museum that would represent a continuation of the reference points Bode-Museum-Monbijoubrücke and Museumshöfe as a diagonal pedestrian connection on the new site. The path was to be designed in such a way that it ends at the end of the site in a central square at the future main entrance to the Museumshöfe.(Further press releases and photos on the website of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning)
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