Herzog & de Meuron build the new museum "Neue Nationalgalerie - Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts" at Berlin's Kulturforum
Press release from 10/27/2016
Realisation competition successfully completed: Jury chaired by Arno Lederer awards a second and a third prize as well as four commendations in addition to the first prize for the Basel office - Grütters: Grandiose design - Parzinger: This design completely rethinks museum architecture and will make history - Eissenhauer: Completely new open spaces for art
The Basel-based architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, together with Vogt Landscape Architects from Zurich, will construct the new building for the "Neue Nationalgalerie - Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts" museum at Berlin's Kulturforum. This decision was made by the jury chaired by Arno Lederer on Tuesday evening. The Swiss architects prevailed against Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter A/S from Copenhagen (with landscape architects SCHØNHERR A/S, Copenhagen) and the Berlin office of Bruno Fioretti Marquez (with capatti staubach Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin), who won second and third prize. The jury also awarded four commendations to the following offices: Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) Rotterdam withInside Outside, Amsterdam; Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/ S A N A A, Tokyo with Bureau Bas Smets, Brussels; Staab Architekten GmbH, Berlin with Levin Monsigny Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin and Aires Mateus e Associados, Lisbon with PROAP Lda, Lisbon. A total of 40 designs were submitted, one office withdrew its participation and another did not submit a design.
About the design
In their explanatory notes, Herzog & de Meuron write of a HOUSE made of brick that they want to build for 20th century art: "Is it a warehouse? Or a barn? Or perhaps a railway station concourse? Isn't it rather a temple with the exact same gable shapes as August Stüler's Alte Nationalgalerie? In fact, it is a place of storage like a warehouse, a place of supplies and food like a farm, a place of meeting and connection like a railway station concourse. And - like a temple - it is also a place for silence and reflection, for the perception of art, for the perception of oneself."
It is very important to the Basel office, which recently realised the extension for the Tate Modern in London, to integrate its design into an urban planning whole at the Kulturforum: "There is a lack of a connection between the different locations, whereby today's 'open spaces' could become squares and the seemingly lost architectures of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Philharmonie, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Kupferstichkabinett and Gemäldegalerie could be integrated into a diverse urban planning whole as important and equal players. We see this connection and networking as one of the main tasks of our project for a museum of the 20th century." Herzog & de Meuron are planning an east-west axis that leads to the Piazzetta and makes the new building appear like a "gate", and a "north-south boulevard" that extends from the Philharmonie and, in perspective, under Sigismundstrasse to the Neue Nationalgalerie.
Their spatial concept is also based on two intersecting inner streets, which provide access to the museum rooms located in four quadrants. The large pitched roof and the high central boulevard are intended to let light into the building. Large-scale works of art can be displayed on the "crossroads", with four exhibition rooms located above the central axes that extend up to the roof. It goes on to say: "There is direct access to the media room in the gable facing the Philharmonie. This means that events can also take place outside normal opening hours. [...] The individual quadrants can be accessed directly from the boulevards. At the same time, all exhibition rooms are connected internally, so that a single course can also be offered as an alternative." A café and restaurant are planned for the north-east quadrant with the listed plane tree.
Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron with senior partners Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron founded their joint office in Basel in 1978. The partnership has grown over the years. Christine Binswanger has been a partner since 1994, followed by Robert Hösl and Ascan Mergenthaler (2004), Stefan Marbach (2006), Esther Zumsteg (2009), Andreas Fries (2011), Jason Frantzen and Wim Walschap (2014) and Michael Fischer (2016). An international team of around 40 associates and 380 employees work on projects in Europe, North and South America and Asia. Herzog & de Meuron has offices in Basel, Hamburg, London, New York City and Hong Kong. Projects currently under construction include the M+ in Hong Kong, a museum for visual culture (scheduled for completion in 2019) and the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem (scheduled for completion in 2020).
Reactions
The chairman of the jury, Arno Lederer, said: "We had an intensive discussion, but it always remained on a factual level. It was a learning process for both the expert and specialist judges, in which the very radical designs in particular repeatedly moved the discussion forward. The first prize winners' design completely defies the standard ideas of what a museum should look like at this location - it represents a very unique position that is both restrained and strong."
Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters, who took the initiative for the new building in November 2014 and was granted 200 million euros by the Bundestag, speaks of a "grandiose design". "It is suitable for providing an appropriate home for the significance of German art of the 20th century, for this sensitive part of art history. From Brücke to Beuys, the works of the Neue Nationalgalerie demand a dignified addition to the Mies van der Rohe building. By deciding in favour of the design by the internationally renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, the jury has made a choice that does outstanding justice to the status of this competition and the prominent building site. Because the whole world is watching this building project. Here we are being judged on how Germany deals with architecture, with this public art. Urban planning, architecture and museum requirements must come together here. The Swiss planners have succeeded in adding an architecturally outstanding building to the great solitaires by Scharoun, Stüler and Mies van der Rohe, which will restructure and revitalise the Kulturforum."
The President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Hermann Parzinger, predicts that Herzog & de Meuron "will once again write museum architecture history. What they are proposing follows clear, simple but very impressive forms. Their design fits in perfectly between the two 'divas' of Mies van der Rohe and Scharoun, with whom it deliberately does not want to compete, and yet it makes a very strong statement. The two central axes of the building open up an entire city quarter and give even the interior a sense of space. They have achieved the almost impossible, namely to connect the State Library with the Picture Gallery. Herzog & de Meuron have created an archetype and are taking a completely new approach to museum architecture. This design will make history, and this history is taking place in Berlin, which is why the Prussian Cultural Heritage and its State Museums are both immensely proud and happy about this fantastic building, which will give our collections a new impact and make museums a new experience. "
The Director General of the National Museums in Berlin, Michael Eissenhauer, also sees "outstanding potential in the design, because it opens up completely new scope for art. I am extremely happy with this choice." And Udo Kittelmann, Director of the Nationalgalerie, describes the design as "a museum architecture that makes its mark in every respect, which does not hold back, but rather raises a clearly visible, self-confident and strong voice. The interaction with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's exhibition hall in particular creates a unique museum location."
From the perspective of the State of Berlin, Senate Building Director Regula Lüscher explains: "The authors have succeeded in a wonderful way in designing a building with character between the icons of the Kulturforum, which is not only a museum, but also gives us an open place in the heart of Berlin - a meeting point and meeting place for non-museum visitors too. The Staatsbibliothek and Matthäuskirchplatz, the Philharmonie and the Neue Nationalgalerie will be connected as a matter of course, thus completing the Kulturforum in its uniqueness."
Exhibition of the designs
All designs from the competition will be on display at the Kulturforum from 18 November 2016 to 8 January 2017.