museum of modern literature, germany

8/2/2019 Museum of Modern Literature, Germany

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Museum o ModernLiteratureMarbach, Germany

David ChipperfeldArchitects


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David Chipperelds haunting Museum o Modern Literature

in Marbach am Neckar, near Stuttgart, southern Germany,is extraordinary or its reduction o architecture to thebarest essentials.The museum houses and displays books, manuscripts andarteacts rom the extensive 20th century collection in theArchive or German Literature including the originalmanuscripts o Franz Kakas The Trial and Alred DoblinsBerlin Alexanderplatz and sits in parkland, embeddedinto a ridge overlooking the pretty valley o the Neckar River.It stands like a modern Parthenon on its own small Acropolis,stripped-to-the-bone-elegant, in stark relationship to theNational Schiller Museum, a near-Baroque pile rom 1903,and a contorted brutalist aair rom 1973, o which it ormsa part. As with nearly all o Chipperelds architecture, thiswork is an exercise in rigorous restraint: a classically-inspired,minimalist temple o glass and slender concrete columnsatop a concrete plinth.But what is more interesting, perhaps, is that Chippereld

won the commission or the museum at all. That in a countrystill plagued by memories o Nazi monumental classicism Hitlers neo-Grecian House o German Culture, with its massivestone columns, is not ar away in Munich and its ongoingdilemma o how to achieve a suitable expression omonumentality in its architecture, an architect, a oreignone at that, would dare propose a neo-classical colonnadedstructure or a building o such national importance.And won in open-competition, to boot!Maybe it had to all to an auslander, a oreigner, to convincethe jury that at this distance rom the Second World Waran abstracted reduction o Nazi classicism might be okay tocontemplate. Ater all, a ew other oreigners James Stirlingwith his Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart o 1984 and NormanFoster and his renovation or the Reichstag in Berlin o 1999,among them had stamped their own peculiar imprimaturon Germanys post-war reconstruction.

Challenging an unwritten rule that post-war German buildingsshould never have columns, Chippereld neverthelessentered the competition with his spare, rectilinear temple.We elt we were bringing back a sort o classicism that hadntbeen seen in this part o Germany since the war, he says.And the period was ar enough away that the discussioncould be interesting. Germans are willing to analyze whatthings mean. Its a great climate to work in. I wanted to reducethe architecture to its most simplied, almost primitive orm.Still, mischievously, he had to reassure one concerned jurorthat the slender pre-cast concrete columns werent ascistcolumns at all but mullions!Given the parkland site, Chippereld came up with a schemeor a temple on a podium, where the base, containing sixexhibition galleries, would be partially embedded into theside o the hill, with entry provided via a glass and concretecolonnaded pavilion on top.Visitors enter the museum through this upper level lantern,

reminiscent o Mies van der Rohes entrance to the Berlin ArtGallery, with its crystalline glass and steel pavilion atop a base.Marbach is sparer, the pavilion marked by a screen o skinnyconcrete columns, without capitals or bases, wrapped aroundits our regular, symmetrical sides.It sits ever so lightly, transparent-like, over the exhibitiongalleries where the columns more requently turn intomullions or glass walls or pilasters set against solid panels.Roo terraces, podium walls and parapets are ormed ostringently linear planks o sandblasted pre-cast concretewith a limestone aggregate.


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issue 09 National Museum o Modern Literature


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Mindul o concerns about the columns and overt classicalsymmetry o the scheme, Chippereld and his project architect,

Alexander Schwartz, pared the columns until they became almostimpossibly thin, mere matchsticks, but still capable o beingpre-cast in concrete. They also played a subtle game o sorts withthe march o the columns: while on the upper lantern all elevationsshare a single column where that turns a corner, on the lowerlevel the colonnades each stop a column-width short o thesharp edge o the corner itsel. Columns are also omitted wherethey signal entrances. The greater challenge though, you suspect,lay within the museum itsel, where the books and manuscriptswere required to be housed in dimly lit (50 lux) spaces toprotect them rom daylight. In order not to create a gloomyor claustrophobic environment, Chippereld tried to expandthe sense o enclosure with extra layers o outdoor terraces thattake advantage o the views across the landscape. We wantedthese galleries to be dark in a positive way, not just dark boxes,but rooms with architectural integrity, he says.Entering the museum, visitors nd themselves in a large hallwhere Ipe, a dark Brazilian wood, clads much o the walls. Daylight

bathes the limestone foors and in-situ concrete walls and sotsin an ethereal glow. Museum goers then work their way down aseries o grand stairs in a careully choreographed journey o axialturns and views to prepare them or the dimly lit lower groundgalleries, subtly reducing light levels as they descend.Once on the lowest level, a suite o exhibition spaces is arrangedaround three anterooms. Rigidly contained in plan, space ispermitted to shit beneath the external terraces that rise andall. So, while unied by the consistent palette o in-situ concretesots, warm timber walls and limestone foors, each space ismade unique through subtle shits in ceiling height.Since the main exhibition galleries, or permanent collectionsand temporary exhibitions, were required to have close-controlenvironments, and as such starved o natural light, Chipperelddesigned these windowless rooms to adjoin a space thatis either a glazed loggia or illuminated by skylights to diminishthe sense o having descended into a tomb. The most spectacular

is the smallest room, a temporary exhibition hall, top-lit roma soaring 11 metre high lantern.At Marbach the language is modest, classical reerences arerened to absolute minimum, the architecture one o exquisitelightness. The Museum o Modern Literature was awarded the2007 RIBA Stirling Prize. JR


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A spare pavilion markedby a screen of skinny concretecolumns, without capitals orbases, wrapped around its foursymmetrical sides



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Project StatementThe museum is located in Marbachs scenic park, on topo a rock plateau overlooking the valley o the Neckar River.As the birthplace o the dramatist Friedrich Schiller, the townspark already held the National Schiller Museum, built in1903, and the Archive or German Literature, built in the 1970s.Displaying arteacts rom the extensive 20th century collectionrom the Archive or German Literature, notably the originalmanuscripts o Franz Kakas The Trial and Alred Dblins

Berlin Alexanderplatz, the museum also provides panoramicviews across and over the distant landscape.Embedded in the topography, the museum reveals dierentelevations depending on the viewpoint. By utilising the steepslope o the site, terraces allow or the creation o very dierentcharacters: an intimate, shaded entrance on the brow o thehill acing the National Schiller Museum with its orecourt andpark, and a grander, more open series o tiered spaces acing

the valley below. A pavilion-like volume is located on the highestterrace, providing the entrance to the museum. The interiorso the museum reveal themselves as one descends down throughthe loggia, oyer and staircase spaces, preparing the visitor orthe dark timber-panelled exhibition galleries, illuminated onlyby artifcial light due to ragility and sensitivity o the workson display. At the same time, each o these environmentallycontrolled spaces borders onto a naturally lit gallery, balancingviews inward to the composed, internalized world o textsand manuscripts with the green and scenic valley on the otherside o the glass.A clearly defned material concept using solid materials (air-aced concrete, sandblasted reconstituted stone with limestoneaggregate, limestone, wood, elt and glass) gives the calm,rational architectural language a sensual physical presence.David Chipperfeld Architects

An exercise in rigorous restraint;a classically inspired, minimalist templeof glass and slender concrete columnsatop a concrete plinth

West elevation

Longitudinal section

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ground foor plan

lower ground foor plan

01 oyer/entrance area

02 auditorium

03 double-height lightwell

04 terraces

05 hall

06 exhibition spaces

07 temporary exhibition

08 loggias

09 wc

10 technical rooms

11 archive link

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The columns are impossibly thin,mere matchsticks, but still capableof being pre-cast in concrete


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Project Museum o Modern LiteratureLocation Marbach am Neckar, GermanyArchitect David Chipperfeld Architects,Design/Project Architect Alexander SchwartzProject team Harald Muller, Martina Betzold,Andrea Hartmann, Christian Helrich, Franziska Rusch,Tobias Stiller, Vincent Taupitz, Mirjam von Busch,Laura Fogarasi, Barbara Koller, Hannah JonasSite supervision Wenzel + WenzelProject manager Drees + SommerStructural engineer Ingenieurgruppe Bauen,Services engineer Jaeger, Mornhinweg + PartnerIngenieurgesellschat, Stuttgart;Ibb Burrer + Deuring Ingenieurburo Gmbh, LudwigsburgPhotographer Christian Richters

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issue 09 Museum o Modern Literature

museum of modern literature, germany

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