David Chipperfield

Neues Museum . Berlin

David Chipperfield . photos: © Jim Stephenson . © STIFTUNG PREUSSISCHER KULTURBESITZ / DCA, PHOTOGRAPHER: CHRISTIAN RICHTERS

The Neues Museum was designed by Friedrich August Stuler and built between 1841 and 1859. Extensive bombing during World War II left the building in ruins. Few attempts at repair were made after the war, and the structure was left exposed to nature.

above photos: © Jim Stephenson

above photos: CHRISTIAN RICHTERS

In 1997, David Chipperfield Architects won the international competition for the rebuilding of the Neues Museum in collaboration with Julian Harrap. The key aim of the project was to recomplete the original volume, and encompassed the repair and restoration of the parts that remained after the destruction. The original sequence of rooms was restored with new building sections. The archaeological restoration followed the guidelines of the Charter of Venice, respecting the historical structure in its different states of preservation. Driven by the idea that the original structure should be emphasised in its spatial context and original materiality the new reflects the lost without imitating it. The new exhibition rooms are built of large format pre-fabricated concrete elements consisting of white cement mixed with Saxonian marble chips. Formed from the same elements, the new main staircase repeats the original without replicating it, sitting within a majestic hall that is preserved only as a brick volume. Other new volumes – the Northwest wing, the apse in the Greek Courtyard, and the South Dome – are built of recycled handmade bricks. With the reinstatement and completion of the colonnade at the eastern and southern side of the Neues Museum, the pre-war urban situation is reestablished to the east. The new James Simon Gallery will be constructed between the Neues Museum and the Kupfergraben Canal, echoing the pre-1938 urban situation. In October 2009 the Neues Museum reopened to the public as the third restored building on Museum Island, exhibiting the collections of the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Pre- and Early History.

DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS IN COLLABORATION WITH JULIAN HARRAP / David Chipperfield
collaborator
Ernst & Young Real Estate GmbH, Berlin , Lubic & Woehrlin GmbH, Berlin , Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung, Berlin , Ingenieurbüro Axel C. Rahn GmbH, Berlin , Kunst und Museumsschutz Beratungs- und Planungs- GmbH , Kunst und Museumsschutz Beratungs- und Planungs- GmbH, Berlin , Jaeger, Mornhinweg+Partner Ingenieurgesellschaft, Stuttgart , Ingenieurgruppe Bauen, Karlsruhe, Berlin , architetto Michele de Lucchi S.r.L., Milan , Levin Monsigny Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin , Pro Denkmal GmbH, Berlin, Bamberg , Christiane Abel, Philipp Auer, Arnaud Bauman, Renato Benedetti, Thomas Benk, Johannes Bennke, Franz Borh, Nathalie Bredella, Daniela Bruns, Katja Buchholz, Janna Bunje, Jan Coghlan, Eamon Cushanan, Nils Dallmann, Florian Dirschedl, Maryla Duleba, Adrian Dunham, Harald Eggers, Matthias Fiegl, Annette Flohrschütz, Jamie Fobert, An Fonteyne, Robin Foster, Michael Freytag, Anke Fritzsch, Nanna Fütterer, Katja Gursch, Julian Harrap, Isabelle Heide, Anne Hengst, Christoph Hesse, Mario Hohmann, Isabel Karig, Michael Kaune, Martin Kley, Regine Krause, Madeleine Lamber, Harvey Langston-Jones, Genevieve Lilley, Paul Ludwig, Martina Maire, Claudia Marx, Marcus Mathias, Werner Mayer-Biela, Patrick McInerney, Ian McKnight, Christiane Melzer, Virginie Mommens, Guy Morgan-Harris, Harald Müller, Rik Nys, Max Ott, Peter Pfeiffer, Martina Pongratz, Mark Randel, Martin Reichert, Robert Ritzmann, Mariska Rohde, Franziska Rusch, David Saik, Elke Saleina, Sonia Sandberger, Eva Schad, Antonia Schlegel, Gunnar Schmidt, Alexander Schwarz, Lukas Schwind, Jonathan Sergison, Haewon Shin, Steven Shorter, Zoka Skorup, Graham Smith, Doreen Souradny, Florian Steinbächer, Christian Stiller, Henning Stummel, Annika Thiel, Simon Timms, Barbara Witt, Sebastian Wolf, Giuseppe Zampieri, Mark Zogrotzski