Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The ceremony at the Neue Nationalgalerie was also attended by artist Lucy Raven, whose installation Ready Mix, 2021, will raise immediate questions about durability, sustainability and the autonomy of architecture as a modern form of visual culture and its function in the coming weeks. The actual act of laying the foundation stone at the construction site was accompanied by a live performance by drummer Deantoni Parks, who composed the music for Raven's immersive film installation.

After the time capsule was filled and Claudia Roth, SPK Vice President Gero Dimter and Klaus Biesenbach gave their blessings for the building, the foundation stone was lifted into the 16 metre deep excavation pit with the help of a crane.

An additional 16,000 square metres for art

The new building and the neighbouring Neue Nationalgalerie will display the art holdings of the Nationalgalerie collection from the 20th century - around 5,000 works. For decades, the Neue Nationalgalerie has only been able to present excerpts from its extensive holdings. In the current presentation, only around 3 per cent of the collection is on display.

Marina Abramović, Otto Dix, Joseph Beuys, Isa Genzken, Lotte Laserstein, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol - these and other renowned artists of the 20th century are represented with important works in the Nationalgalerie's collection. For reasons of space, however, only small sections of the collection can be shown at any one time. All of the art of classical modernism is currently in storage. Many works of post-1945 art have also been in storage for years, especially large installations by Rebecca Horn or Anselm Kiefer, for example.

The berlin modern makes it possible to finally present this broad and diverse collection to the public on a permanent basis. In a tour through both buildings, visitors will be able to explore the art and thus also the history of the 20th century in its various stages and forms: from Kirchner's epochal work Potsdamer Platz (1914) to George Grosz and New Objectivity to the contemporary art of Katharina Sieverding and Barbara Kruger; from the poetic dreams of Joan Miró to the idiosyncratic spaces of Rebecca Horn; from the film experiments at the Bauhaus to the video rooms of Gary Hill, Bruce Nauman and Pipilotti Rist. The tour provides a retrospective from the perspective of the present and is organised across all genres. In addition to painting, sculpture, photography and performance, the tour through the two buildings also provides an insight into the history of architecture, design and film.

Works from the Ulla & Heiner Pietzsch Collection (around 160 works), the Marx Collection (almost 200 works) and the Marzona Collection (around 300 works) as well as the Art Library and the Museum of Prints and Drawings will also be on display.

An open house for all

With today's laying of the foundation stone, the intensive planning work of recent years is now taking on a more concrete, built form. The new berlin modern building is being managed by the Landesbetrieb Bundesbau Baden-Württemberg on behalf of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) as the client and owner. The museum at the Kulturforum Berlin was designed by the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron with Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten, who were awarded first prize in the 2016 realisation competition.

The competition design was already planned as a networked building that opens up into the public, urban space with a generous gesture and creates connections to the neighbouring buildings. The museum combines different locations of the Kulturforum into a diverse urban composition - with greenery, squares and the integration of neighbouring iconic architecture such as the Philharmonie by Hans Scharoun and the Neue Nationalgalerie by Mies van der Rohe.

berlin modern with its large pitched roof, built around a plane tree protected as a natural monument, will be a "house for all" and the essential building block for the completion of the Kulturforum.

A socially and ecologically sustainable building

Since Klaus Biesenbach took office, the plans have been further developed to make the centre even more welcoming, lively and participatory. For example, there will be more ticket-free exhibition areas and curatorial spaces for social events. A beer garden around the Platanenhof will invite visitors to linger, while a pop-up café on the south side of the building will open up towards the Neue Nationalgalerie. The entrance areas on the east and west sides of the building will be accessible as free "street galleries". The greenery planted around the building will provide shade and ensure an improved microclimate. All in all, berlin modern will make the Kulturforum a much more liveable place.

The ecological sustainability of the building has also been optimised once again: The large-scale photovoltaic system on the roof is the most visible sign of this. Thanks to it, the museum's primary energy requirement is significantly better than the current legal requirement. The use of recycled materials for the concrete, the façade bricks and the flooring in the outdoor area also contribute to the building's favourable carbon footprint. During the planning process, it was also possible to slim down the load-bearing structure and thus save on steel and concrete. In addition, the design of the building services was optimised by adapting the museum's climate requirements, among other things. Together with the decision to use energy-efficient heating and cooling floors, this reduced the energy requirement for air conditioning by around 20 per cent.

Art in the building: Rirkrit Tiravanija and Cyprien Gaillard

Two art-in-architecture competitions were held for berlin modern: The first prizes went to Rirkrit Tiravanija and Cyprien Gaillard. With its expandable, modular and mobile Thai noodle shop, the design Untitled 2026 (pad thai vs khao soi) by Rirkrit Tiravanija creates an object that offers space for social interaction and makes cooking a tangible cultural practice. In addition to drinks and small snacks, two Thai dishes are always available: Pad Thai, the export hit from Thailand in the West, and Khao Soi, the northern Thai dish par excellence. In the hands of Morpheus by Cyprien Gaillard combines the bronze sculpture of a sleeping punk woman, which stood in front of a Berlin district office for around 20 years, with a video stele. The monitor shows randomly sequenced video clips and abstract animations speculate about the figure's thoughts. The installation is a videographic reflection on dreaming and shared public space on the threshold of the digital world.

Construction work since 2019

The ground-breaking ceremony for berlin modern, then known as the "Museum of the 20th Century", took place in December 2019. The preparatory construction work, including clearing the construction site, began in 2020, with construction work on the excavation pit starting the following year. The entire construction site with the construction facilities currently stretches 150 metres from Scharounplatz to the Neue Nationalgalerie, and around 100 metres in an east-west direction from Potsdamer Straße to Matthäikirchplatz.

Before the new museum building can grow upwards, it first had to be dug deep into the Berlin soil. The excavation pit with a depth of around 16 metres was created on an area of around 8,000 m². The excavation and removal of around 130,000 cubic metres of earth took place at high speed until spring 2023. The excavation pit enclosure is designed as a watertight trough structure. Its approx. 25 metre deep lateral reinforced concrete diaphragm walls are secured with approx. 500 anchors and the jet grouting base with approx. 1,000 micropiles. This was followed by the expansion of the construction site facilities and logistics and, in 2023, the release of the first sections of the construction site for the structural work of the building construction. A third and final crane is currently being erected, which, together with the two existing cranes, will make the construction site visible from afar in the city centre for years to come. The storeys will gradually rise and the museum will take on an increasingly tangible form.

Construction is scheduled for completion in 2027. The costs for the construction project currently stand at 363.8 million euros plus risk costs and construction price development.

Further links

• Press release for download
• Press photos
• Laying of the foundation stone
• Quotes on the laying of the foundation stone
• Art on the building
• Data sheet
• Collections at berlin modern
• Press release Lucy Raven
• Information on Herzog & De Meuron
• Speech by Hermann Parzinger
• Information press photos visualisations
• Information press photos art in architecture
• Information on press images collections
• Instagram berlin modern