Berlin 2009 - Wingender Hovenier Architecten

Kunstgalerie Kupfergraben, Berlin, 2003-2007
David Chipperfield
This Art Gallery is located on number
10 of Berlin’s Kupfergraben canal,
overlooking the Lustgarten, a park
presided by the Altes Museum by
Schinkel and the Museum Island.
The intention was to build a modern
building which incorporated but did
not replicate the past. As part of the
cityscape, the composition of the fourstorey
gallery building reacts to its
immediate historic context, while the
scale of its window openings reflects
the urban dimensions of a corner
building. As an urban infill, the new
building connects with both of its
neighbouring buildings with regard to
their respective building heights and
occupies the footprint of the preceding
building (destroyed during the war),
while at the same time developing its
own sculptural quality. The facades are
of brick masonry on reconstituted stone
courses with no visible expansion joints,
using salvaged bricks pointed with
slurry, which gives the surface an
interesting texture in ocre tones that
reacts to sunlight. This arrangement
rests at regular intervals on concrete
courses that structure the composition
and place the gallery in relationship
with the cornice lines of the adjacent
historical buildings. Large window
openings reflect the urban scale of the
site and define the composition of the
facade, given structure by their
untreated wooden sashes. They also
provide extraordinary views over the
monumental complex of Berlin. In
contrast, the facade that looks onto the
courtyard is entirely enclosed with glass
and wood, generating a more domestic
image than the exterior ones in spite
of the repeated series of windows that
cover its surface. The structure of the
complex is made out of reinforced
concrete. While solid materials that will
age well characterise the exterior of the
building, the interior is defined by
daylight and proportion. The building
cores organise the space of the 5.5
metre high rooms. The floor plan,
consisting of a simple scheme of
longitudinal bands, varies throughout
the four storeys depending on the form
of the volume and the placement of the
window openings. The gallery spaces
are side lit from different directions, and
daylight is controlled by interior folding
shutters. The intention was to create a
series of well proportioned and well lit
rooms for living, working, or showing art
- in a townhouse dedicated to the arts
and directly related to the cultural heart
of the city and its history.