The museum, created by the Tchoban Foundation, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg district, on the site of the former Pfefferberg brewery, which now houses a variety of galleries, studios and other enterprises of the "creative industry". Side by side with the new institution is the renowned architecture gallery Aedes, whose founder Christine Feireiss is on the Curatorial Board of the Museum of Architectural Drawing.
The small building was attached to the firewall of a residential building, and its main façade faces the Christinenstrasse perspective: it is clearly visible to pedestrians walking from the Senefelderplatz square, where the nearest metro station is. Abstract motifs are applied to the concrete surface of the walls, as well as details of a sketch for theatrical scenery by Pietro Gonzago: it was with this work, acquired by Sergei Tchoban in 2001, that his collection of architectural drawings began, which is now transferred to the museum he created. The building, on which Sergey Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov worked, demonstrates the decorative interpretation of the facades characteristic of the SPEECH bureau, and it "penetrates" into the interior as well; the project includes details made in the same spirit, right down to the doorknob and stair railings. At the same time, the upper floor in the form of a glass console with a lower surface made of polished stainless steel reminds of the Berlin building of Tchoban -
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With a total area of just under 500 m2, the building has five above-ground tiers and one underground, so all the rooms inside are very chamber, reminiscent of a historic house in scale and atmosphere, and not a modern building. Considering that the exhibits - architectural graphics - require viewing from a small distance, such a size, as well as the designation of the two exhibition halls as "offices", seem very appropriate. This, however, is associated with a technical limitation: exhibition spaces can simultaneously accommodate - while maintaining the comfort for visitors - about 30 people, so in case of high popularity of exhibitions, you will have to enter a preliminary appointment.
The first floor is occupied by a lobby, designed like a library in a private house: there visitors can wait for their turn, leafing through books or buying a catalog. The space is visually expanded by a dark mirrored ceiling. Above there are two floors with an exhibition hall on each of them, a storage tier, and at the very top there is a terrace with a transparent prism of a meeting room, where you can also hold lectures or press conferences.
The two exhibition halls represent wide "corridors": this configuration gives the maximum wall area for hanging with a minimum comfortable room width of 3.72 m. In total, the museum can show up to 70 works, it can also be carried out in each of the other halls have a separate exhibition. Thanks to the thick self-supporting concrete walls and the absence of windows in the halls, the museum has the properties of a thermos: it retains the temperature and humidity created inside for a long time (45%) and protects the interior from any changes in the external environment. This made the building very energy efficient: with the German standard for new buildings of 290 kWh / m2 / year, it consumes only 50 units. Also, constantly monitored temperature and humidity conditions, various security systems, lighting with the lowest possible ultraviolet radiation allow showing the most valuable exhibits. For example, the first exhibition was a collection of drawings of the temples of Paestum by Giovanni Battista Piranesi from the John Soane Museum in London: there was no opportunity to exhibit them all at home, so this summer the Berlin audience had a rare opportunity to appreciate this graphic ensemble in its entirety. These works, unique in quality and size, will then be displayed at the Morgan Library in New York.
And the Soun Museum this summer will present the best things from the collection of the Tchoban Foundation (this fund owns the museum) and drawings by Sergei Tchoban. The work of the Berlin Museum is built precisely on the principle of exchange: in this way its function - the popularization of drawing as an important part of architectural culture - is carried out most fully. It is planned to hold 4 exhibitions a year, of which 2-3 - from materials of partner institutions: in addition to the Souna Museum, they include the Paris School of Fine Arts (from there the exhibitions of Charles Garnier and her graduates-laureates of the Rome Prize are to arrive) and the State Museum of Architecture them. A. V. Shchusev, negotiations are being successfully carried out with the New York Museum of Contemporary Art MoMA. The works of masters of the past are combined in the museum's program with the works of our contemporaries: in addition to the works of Tchoban himself, his collection includes drawings by Zvi Hecker, Ben van Berkel, Wolf Pryks donated by the authors.
