BERLIN ARCHITECTURE MUSEUM: Architecture of Museum Beyond Exhibition Space

Politecnico di Milano, Polytechnic University of Milan, School of Design

Project idea

This thesis project aspires to develop a complete project proposal for a new architecture museum in Kulturforum, Berlin. The site is a part of the area called Kulturforum and the plot neighbors to the New National Gallery by Mies Van der Rohe. The cultural forum of Berlin is a collection of cultural buildings concentrated in this area.

It was essential to define the “museum of architecture” as the central theme of the theoretical analysis to investigate and discover the potentials and the ways that such a structure could perform. The museum of architecture is redefined as a unifying place of learning, the architectural communication between the object and the users distinguished the characteristics of the entity.

Museum of Architecture aims to be a place of common interest and collaboration to coexist, generate, and exchange knowledge. Acting as a hub to bring together different groups of people in the architectural society of Berlin. As a museum, the building becomes a place to learn about architecture and observe the architectural design process. For the institutions, the building offers spaces to gather, connect to the academy, and provides a window to the latest architectural technologies. The students, on the other hand, activate the building by constant production, experiment, research, and inspiration from the qualities of the building itself.

What a museum intends to provide is learning through exposure. A typical object of exhibition is usually exposed explicitly often coupled with verbal or auditory explications to enhance the exchange of information. The architecture of a museum in this case offers a spatial frame, a structure for the narration, a canvas for the technology to be integrated, or a tactile settlement for the intangible information. The meaning of an artifact (in this case the architecture itself) differs according to the reader who intends to understand and communicate. Since every individual has a different background of knowledge as a result of different professional/personal backgrounds, there is an infinite number of information that a work of architecture can provide. Hence the potential beyond the exhibition space could transform from exposure to expression, encounter, experiment, manufacture, and more.

Project description

The concept is formed around the key idea of dividing and grouping the exhibition and learning functions. Inspired by the composition of the New National Gallery, the exhibition spaces are formed as a podium and learning functions were encapsulated into a cubic form. The central core has slightly rotated to orient the entrance at a perpendicular angle. The podium has been stretched gradually to increase the exhibition volume, enveloping the central core and the learning functions. The cube then had been modified by a simple move of pushing one corner down, offering a vista to the Kulturforum and towards central Berlin. The entrance is carved out by the existing attributions has been introduced a staircase and a ramp to continue the common language of ascending before entering indoors. Openings in the enveloping walls of the galleries have been defined to provide a new point of view to the open-air architecture museum quality of the Kulturforum. The enclosed balconies punched out from the galleries enabled the visitors to have an extensive experience of architectural exposition. The proposal re-acting its role in this architectural theatre as a new landmark also gives back a modest public space in the public realm while being a backdrop to urban life.

Designing a museum of architecture in the context of architectural monuments in an environment resembling a sculpture garden required a relevant strategy. The need to include the context to the museum experience led to a discussion of whether to add a new sculpture to the collection or providing a new perspective to the garden. The solution is found in the question itself by providing a unique sculpture as a new point of view to the context. Each exhibition level is introduced with an opening to the context, providing a new look out to the neighboring monuments of architecture from different eras. Redefining them as in-situ objects of the exhibit.

Technical information

M.Sc. Thesis Proposal
Architecture And Urban Design
Politecnico di Milano

Project Location: Berlin, Germany.
Program: Cultural Building (Museum + Education)
Area: 11.600 M2

Softwares:
3D modeling and 2D drawings: Rhinoceros
Visualizations: Enscape
Graphic Work: Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)