X+UN Architecture

Bavaria’s history museum . Regensburg

design team: Tommaso Bernabó Silorata, Alejandro González Palacios, Miguel Piedras Lobo, Jorge Santacruz Bonilla, Luis Miguel Seguí Urbita

The design of the Bavaria’s history museum in Regensburg takes into account the impact of the most important landmarks surrounding the site.

It is placed in the bank of the Donau River, which acts as a visual promenade that makes the building visible from a long distance and channels an important flow of people into the site. The bank has a strong social character as it shelters regularly the traditional market of the Donau. In the other side, the building is surrounded by the old part of the city, with its traditional urban “tissue” opening to a medium size plaza.
The shape of the museum generates from a series of stripes parallel to the river. Two different configurations in the building are created when the addition of these stripes is modified by the site’s landmarks. The first one responds to the concourse in the bank of the river and the river itself. It has a few stripes deep while being very long. The height of the building is up to four stories in this part, giving the building a proper size from the Donau and generating a representative image of the museum in the skyline of Regensburg. This long part enclosure the restaurant as well as other public uses like an auditorium. In the opposite parts, these stripes generate a concourse that acts as an important public space responding to the city. A passage allows walking from this inner concourse to the bank of the river, creating a canopy that shelters the entrance to the main exhibition area and the restaurant, while articulating both parts of the building. The second part of the museum is sited in a deeper way, with more and shorter stripes. This big part shelters the main exhibition area. A great library is sited at the end of this body, in part imbibed in a medieval building, with an independent access as well as communicated with the rest of the complex. The roofs of the different stripes are created according to a unique logic, following different rhythms and peacking different heights according to the space´s functional necessities. All the stripes have a metallic enclosure with open parts providing roof-light when necessary and selected points of view. A metallic grid covers the building acting as louvres or adopting a less dense configuration allowing the sun to get into. This metallic grid helps to make the building energetically efficient.
Once indoor of the exhibition area, a great multiple-heighted hall leads to the different areas. The main exhibition area opens to the river, in there, while the ground floor is continuous for sheltering the introductory material, the space in the upper levels is separated by the stripes in the different areas needed as it has to shelter more specific objects. A great triple- height space makes possible the exhibition of big sized materials, like a big hot air balloon. In the top of this area, a great and wide opening shows a view of the city’s cathedral. The main libray opens to a great hub, the old medieval building open to this hub and enclosures different administrative and educational uses.
The design of the building with the differentiated stripes series makes reference to the pass of different generations and phases during the decades and how their superposition add richness and complexity to the process of history.

Architects: X+UN Architecture
Location: Regensburg, Germany
Team: Tommaso Bernabó Silorata, Alejandro González Palacios, Miguel Piedras Lobo, Jorge Santacruz Bonilla, Luis Miguel Seguí Urbita
Type: Competition
Size: 10,000 sqm
Status: Proposal