Status
Project
Year
2006
Program
Culture
Scale
4750m²
Partners
Mark Mückenheim
Relja Arnautovic
Mirjam Patz
Team
Mark Mückenheim,
Relja Arnautovic,
Mirjam Patz,
Hans Dieter Stüller (Structure / HVAC)

A giant circular park forms a continuous green ring in place of the former medieval fortifications around the city center of Bremen, Germany. Embedded into this park, towards the west of the city, lies the Kunsthalle, a museum for modern art, whose changing exhibitions receive enormous attention that greatly exceeds beyond the region. We asked ourselves how an extension could be achieved without interrupting the spatial flow of the important green belt. At the same time, it was our aim to retain the urban character of the existing classicistic building from 1849 as a solitary within the park. Our carefully placed addition is respectfully detached from the historical building. It is connected with the existing Museum via tube-like ducts on all exhibition levels and towards the main lobby. The new intervention is set back from the street, therefore highlighting the old building, allowing pedestrians to move around the ensemble and retaining the natural, uninterrupted flow of the park. The free form of the building results out of the vertical space distribution and a logic placement of the spatial program on single levels. The orthogonal galleries are clustered in the center of the floor plan leaving open areas towards the free-formed facade, creating an outer circulation layer. This perimeter is a space of clearance and mediation for the visitors in between the content of the white box galleries, which are tailored to meet international exhibition standards, and the specific genius loci of the park. This buffer is contained by a partly transparent, partly mirroring climatic hull. The resulting camouflage pattern of the facade, lets the new building seemingly disappear. The building mass of the new addition, therefore, deprives itself of a clear-cut identification, it is disguised and mystically implemented into the park.