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New Museum Architecture in Germany
In the late 1950s, Germany undertook a remarkable task of redesigning, renovating and constructing museum buildings that reached its peak in the 1980s and has become an obligatory point of reference when dealing with the subject.
The exhibition New Museum Architecture in Germany, organised by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt and presented in collaboration with the Deutsches Institut, features buildings that make up the contents of the exhibition in order to propose different solutions to the various problems that usually accompany any project of this type – connection between the new and existing building, integration into the urban or historical environment – and will undoubtedly determine its characteristics.
Each of these buildings is an example of architectural creation that reveals the different museographic concepts of both museum professionals and the architects who built them. Nonetheless, three main strands can be outlined within this context, exemplified by Hans Hollein’s Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, James Stirling and Michael Wilford’s Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and Richard Meier’s Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt.
While Hans Hollein breaks with the traditional doctrine of museum architecture and absolutely prioritises form, enabling him to create a kind of architectural landscape on the outside – and to treat interior spaces as stages for the presentation of works of art – Meier seemingly aims to stay in the line of purity that links him to Le Corbusier. Stirling not only respects but also emphasises the axial layout of the interior, while using the most classical architectural forms to create specific exterior spaces in which materials play a fundamental role.
At a time when the concern for correctly presenting and conserving our historical and artistic heritage has led us to look at the achievements of countries such as Germany, which are considered pioneers in this field, and when a remarkable dynamic has been created, both at a theoretical and practical level, generating projects and initiatives, New Museum Architecture in Germany can help us to continue the debate between museographers and architects in an attempt to find the best solutions.
Fundació Joan Miró
