About three years ago, the renowned curator and collector, former agent and secretary of the artist Joseph Beuys, Heiner Bastian, acquired land opposite the Museum Island, where the key State Museums of Berlin are located. He decided to use a small wedge-shaped plot, which cost 3 million euros, to build an art gallery, combined with residential apartments.
In 2003, Bastian invited the most prominent architects to take part in the competition for the Kunsthaus project - Frank Gehry, Hans Kolhoff, David Chipperfield, Peter Zumthor and a personal friend of the customer, Californian architect Ron Radziner. The task was extremely laconic: it was required to present your own version of the gallery to accommodate Heiner Bastian's collection, which occupies three floors, and two apartments located on the fourth. There was no cost limit. The only strict condition is the inconvenient shape of the site for construction. Also, the aspects complicating the situation can be attributed to the historical environment of striking architectural monuments.
Competition-winning David Chipperfield compared his task to "trying to build something opposite the Acropolis." The architect's idea was to create a structure that marks the border between the Museum Island and the "ordinary" city.
His project is based on contrast with the architectural environment, laconic forms with prevailing horizontal lines are reminiscent of industrial buildings. The ceilings of the exhibition spaces (two rectangular in the floor plan of the hall are located on each of the three lower floors) are simple slabs of rough concrete. Daylight enters the galleries through windows that are almost invisible from the inside. The halls are designed symmetrically in relation to the lobby, which is located in the corner block of the lower level. The living quarters and office of the gallery will be located on the fourth floor. The outer walls are evenly broken by wide openings of the windows of spaces, and such a texture allows the building to fit into an architectural environment that is not uniform in style and size. Sandstone and concrete were used as materials.
The name of the future museum was given according to its actual address - "Gallery Hinter dem Giesshaus 1". It should be noted that the building will be erected opposite the New Museum complex, which is now being reconstructed according to Chipperfield's design.
