{"id":48115,"date":"2014-06-08T08:31:47","date_gmt":"2014-06-08T06:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/berlin-builtbuilt-on-existing-tissue-neues-museum\/"},"modified":"2017-10-26T11:47:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T09:47:43","slug":"berlin-builtbuilt-on-existing-tissue-neues-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/berlin-builtbuilt-on-existing-tissue-neues-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin built\/built on existing tissue – Neues Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1997 David Chipperfield Architects won an international competition for the restoration of Friedrich August St\u00fcler\u2019s Neues Museum, originally built between 1841\/43 \u2013 1859. Located on Museum Island in the heart of former East Berlin, the building was initially constructed to extend the space of the Altes Museum, built immediately to the south by St\u00fcler\u2019s teacher Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The original design had formed part of an overall architectural concept for Museum Island \u2013 prompted by Friedrich Wilhelm IV \u2013 of a series of art and archaeological museums styled so as to promote a greater appreciation of classical antiquity. Seen today alongside the four other reconstructed museum buildings on the island, St\u00fcler\u2019s Neues Museum was the only structure that remained ruined from the war for almost five decades \u2013 a contrast that demonstrated ideas of history and decay in a compelling and powerful way, although throughout the building the degree of destruction varied greatly. Certain interiors survived almost completely, with elaborate finishes and ceiling frescos still intact, while other building elements existed only as the enclosures of a gaping void. The power of the ruin not least stemmed from this exposed brickwork shell investing the building, 150 years after it was first imagined, with the indelible presence of a picturesque classical ruin. Given this evocative yet inaccessible space, the restoration of the Neues Museum follows a principle of conservation rather than reconstruction \u2013 the design gives back only enough context so that the significance of the whole structure and the sequence of spaces contained within it are legible. Accordingly, the missing northwest wing and southeast bay are rebuilt, the enfilade of rooms is restored, and the stair and courtyard spaces are designed to maintain elements of the building\u2019s own decay. In this way, the new Neues Museum and its collection of Egyptian antiquities should navigate carefully between de-historicised reconstruction and monumentalised preservation. Nearby the Neues Museum the New Entrance building to James Simon Gallery will complete the Museum Island ensemble the originally occupied by Shinkel\u2019s Packhof building. The project involves rearranging the relationships and open spaces between the Pergamon Museum and the Neues Museum, and giving architectural form to thelarge-scale urban qualities of the site. Above all, the project aims to create a new address on the Museum Island \u2013 a new entrance and reception area which exploits the possibilities of the most effective side of the site while at the same time supporting the urban relationships of the existing historic buildings.<\/p>\n