On October 26, 2016, the winners of the design competition were announced: Herzog & de Meuron architects from Basel, in partnership with Vogt landscape architects from Zurich, submitted the winning design for the new building for the Neue Nationalgalerie - Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts at the Kulturforum in Berlin. Their entry was selected by a jury chaired by Arno Lederer.
Architects' Commentary:
"Is it a warehouse? Or a barn? Or maybe a railway station concourse? Isn't it more of a temple with exactly the same gable forms as those on the Alte Nationalgalerie designed by August Stüler? Indeed, it is a place of storage like a warehouse, a place of supplies and nutriment like a working farm, and a place of encounter and connection like a station concourse. "And - like a temple - it is also a place of silence and reflection, of the perception of art, of the perception of oneself."
"It currently lacks a connection between the different presences that would give its open spaces a sense of place and incorporate the lost-looking buildings of the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Philharmonie, the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts), the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings), and the Gemäldegalerie (Old Master Paintings Gallery) in a diverse urban entity as important and equal players. We see connecting and networking as one of the main tasks for our project for a Museum of the 20th Century."
The building and site plan will serve as the new home of multiple internationally significant art collections, including the National Gallery’s Marx and Pietzsch collections, sections of the Marzona collection, and a collection of works from the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings).
In a competition with 42 finalists apart from the winners, Herzog & de Meuron together with Vogt Landscape Architects, it has become as Second Prize Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects with SCHØNHERR A / S, and Bruno Fioretti Marquez with Capatti Staubach Landscape Architects, as the Third PRize. Moreover, the jury has granted four recognitions to proposals from OMA, SANAA, Staab Architekten, and Aires Mateus e Associados.
"The gable end facing the Philharmonie offers direct access to the media room. This allows events to be held there outside the regular opening hours. (…) The quadrants can be reached individually, directly from the boulevards. At the same time, the exhibition spaces are connected internally, so that alternatively they can all be visited on a single circuit."
