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Entwurf • Design Sieber Architekten, Düsseldorf
Bauherr • Client Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Standort • Location Ehrenhof 4-5, Düsseldorf
Nutzfläche • Floor space 18.786 m 2
Fotos • Photos Stefan Müller, Berlin
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More infos on page 126
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +1 Grundriss 2. Obergeschoss • Floor plan level +2
B uilt by Wilhelm Kreis (1873–1955) in less than a year in 1925/1926 after plan- of the façade and column position. The given structure is well dimensioned and
offers the advantage that it leaves room for future developments. The aim was to
ning dating back to before the First World War, the permanent buildings were
designed to present a comprehensive panorama of cultural achievements and con- bring the relationship between the spaces into a contemporary form that is appro-
sidered to be one of the largest and most sophisticated representative ensembles priate to the specific task. No enfilade with hierarchically defined dominants, main
of the Weimar Republic. To the west, facing the Rhine, stood the Kunstmuseum, and secondary axes, but rather a meandering sequence of clearly defined rooms with
the “new building” from 1926. To the east, the Kunstpalast, which was based on an carefully staged highlights: The two halls with the new spiral staircases connecting
older, neo-baroque building. On the banks of the Rhine, the complex is complemen- the floors of the collection, the two foyers and the Belvedere.
ted by the large Rheinterrassen restaurant. In contrast to the historicizing museum
architecture of the previous 150 years, Kreis’ Kunstmuseum was regarded as the A central component of the measures: the new museum restaurant
most modern museum building to date and as a pioneer of classical modernism in
museum construction. The elongated, column-structured museum rooms radiated a It provides visitors with orientation along their route and opens up views into the
sobriety that was hitherto unusual for cultural buildings. At the latest when Helmut Ehrenhof and the multi-storey foyers. The Palast Studio, with its two large studios,
Hentrich (1905-2001) remodelled the two museums opposite each other in the 1980s, media room, darkroom and ancillary rooms, is the southern turning point of the
they became one building with one name. The aim of our planning was to make the collection tour. On the 2 floor with its skylights, separated from the exhibition rooms
nd
Kunstpalast, with its different sections of collection, temporary exhibition, catering, by a glass wall, it has visibility and presence. A central component of the project is
Robert Schumann Hall, administration, Palast Studio etc., perceivable again as a the new museum restaurant. Previously located on the first floor of the foyer, it has
single institution. now been positioned so that it can be visited by everyone, regardless of the opening
hours. The Belvedere on the first floor offers a fantastic view to the north towards
Predefined structure offers space for future developments the banks of the Rhine, but above all to the south over the Ehrenhof with the old
town behind it. This room, which is probably the most beautiful in the museum, is
The internal appearance of the building was to regain a unity that is appropriate to optionally part of the collection tour, but can also be hired for events. A bridge leads
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the overall ensemble. The entrance for the two parts of the museum, the collection through the high room on the 2 floor, connecting the two parts of the tour. This semi-
tour and the temporary exhibitions, was initially located in the shared foyer in the public gastronomic vertical is complemented by the legendary, reconstructed meeting
east wing. Here, in the centre of the building, you enter the museum. The tour begins place Creamcheese located on the 2nd floor. The focus of our interest in this project
and ends here. The sequence of rooms for the two-storey tour of the collection was was to make the Kunstpalast tangible as a building that enters into a dialogue with
developed on the basis of the building grid specified by Kreis and identical in terms its outdoor space, the Ehrenhof, from which the site and the building benefit equally.
AIT 9.2024 • 117