BONN ART MUSEUM

Day-lit museums – many have taken the form of intricate complex devices for the destruction of light. Natural, living daylight was the aim from the outset. Soane’s experiments – as can be seen in his house in London – provided a more suitable guide than the comparatively more clouded treatment of the topic by Schinkel and all his admirers to the present day.

Light pours in like water through a sieve, flooding all the surfaces of the rooms. The play and insight of the objects and pictures in the light should be seen as the decisive quality of the new building. Thus, the architect’s intention here was not to erect an art temple, a Domus Aurea – the aim was to create a Domus Lux, a house of light.

To conclude:  as long as space is almost always the result and not the aim of structural, organisational, geometric or stylistic goals, as long as architecture is dominated by the ‘unessential’, the absence of original, suggestive spatial quality will be coupled – particularly in museum buildings – with an excess of so-called architecture. In response to the zigzag and shipshape little follies which are flooding the architectural market, Markus Lüpertz demands that ‘architecture must have the greatness to present itself in such a way that it can accommodate art, and that it does not drive art away through its own claims’. This concern was not part of our conscious architectural intentions, however during the entire time taken to plan the gallery, it was there at the back of our minds.

The building proved it wrong. When it was finally opened we, at least, were satisfied when the curator wandering through the exhibition joined Franz Kafka in saying:  ‘The nicest thing about my building is its silence!’

SITE

Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2

53113 Bonn

TYPOLOGY

Art museum

CLIENT

Stadt Bonn

ARCHITECT

Axel Schultes

in Bangert Jansen Scholz Schultes

with Jürgen Pleuser

DESIGN

Axel Schultes

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Projektgruppe Kunstmuseum

Dipl.-Ing. Schmitz

COLLABORATORS

Bumiller  Bürger  Kister  Maass

Nordmann  Staab

and

Augustin  Chestnutt  Franke  Heydel

Moell  Nieuwenhuizen  Randel  Sroka

Vallotto

COMPETITION  –  COMPLETION

1985  –  1992

GROSS FLOOR AREA

10.000 m²

CONSTRUCTION

reinforced concrete    fair-faced concrete

PROJECT CONTROLLING

Ingenieursozietät BGS

Dipl.-Ing. Volker Warnat

SITE SUPERVISION

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bauleitung Kunstmuseum Bonn

E. Zgoll und W. Stolle Architekten BDA

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

Planungsgemeinschaft Tragwerk Neubau Kunstmuseum Bonn

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Polonyi & Partner GmbH

Spitzlei & Jossen GmbH

Stettner & Wald  Beratende Ingenieure VBI

SOIL MECHANICS

Spitzlei & Jossen GmbH

DAYLIGHT

Institut für Tageslichttechnik  Dr.-Ing. Freymuth

LIGHTING

Büro Lichtdesign

BUILDING SERVICES ENGINEER

Rheinbraun Haustechnik GmbH

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Bolm & Partner  Beratende Ingenieure

PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Institut für Schall- und Wärmeschutz

Ingenieurgemeinschaft Zeller & Partner

ACOUSTICS

Robert Dorff  Ingenieurbüro für Bauphysik

PHOTOS

Hans-Jürgen Commerell

Axel Schultes   Charlotte Frank