The James Simon Galerie building on Berlin’s Museum Island is now complete by David Chipperfield Architects and was officially handed over to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin on 13 December 2018.
The new entrance building to the Museum Island will open to the public in summer 2019. Over the coming months, the interiors will be fitted-out in time for the inauguration. In addition to service facilities for museum visitors, the James Simon Galerie houses a temporary exhibition space and an auditorium with around 300 seats.

Together with the ‘Archaeological Promenade’, the James Simon Galerie represents the heart of the masterplan developed in 1999, which since its approval has served as the starting point for all further planning on the Museum Island.
 

Description of project by David Chipperfield

As a continuation of Friedrich August Stüler’s forum architecture, the James Simon Galerie serves as the new entrance building for Museum Island, completing the ensemble between the Kupfergraben canal and the south-west façade of the Neues Museum. Together with the ‘Archaeological Promenade’, it forms the backbone of the masterplan that was developed in 1999 and adopted as the basis for all further planning on Museum Island. The building is sited on a narrow strip of land where Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s ‘Neuer Packhof’ administration building stood until 1938.

As the new gateway to the Museum Island, the James Simon Galerie plays a significant role and is suitable for welcoming large numbers of visitors, housing all the facilities required by the contemporary museum-goer. The James Simon Galerie addresses itself to the Lustgarten, the Schlossbrücke (Palace Bridge), and the Kupfergraben canal. It forms a physical connection above ground with the Pergamon Museum and links the museum via the Archaeological Promenade at basement level with the Neues Museum, the Altes Museum and the Bode Museum.

A staggering of the building dimensions ensures that the view from the Schlossbrücke into the depths of the Museum Island and of the west façade of the Neues Museum is preserved. The high stone plinth of the building reinforces the bank of the Kupfergraben canal, above which a tall colonnade rises up, expressing a classical piano nobile. Large parts of this principal level will be accessible to the public outside opening hours, further extending the public realm of the Museum Island. Slender columns become a leitmotif, reminiscent of the famous sketch by Friedrich Wilhelm IV for his ‘cultural acropolis’. They continue Stüler’s colonnade that originally ended at Neues Museum, creating the new small colonnaded courtyard between the Neues Museum and the James Simon Galerie.

Three flights of wide steps, set between the elongated plinth and the lower colonnade, invite visitors into the building. Arriving at the upper level, visitors enter a generous foyer, with direct level access to the main exhibition floor of the Pergamon Museum. The foyer also encloses the cafeteria and opens out onto a grand terrace that runs the full length of the building. A mezzanine floor beneath the main entrance foyer accommodates the museum shop, a large cloakroom, toilet facilities and lockers, while the temporary exhibition spaces and an auditorium are situated in the basement level.

The architectural language of the James Simon Galerie adopts existing elements of the Museum Island, primarily from the external architecture, such as built topography, colonnades and outdoor staircases, making reference to Schinkel, Stüler and the other architects involved in the creation of Museum Island. The materiality of the building in reconstituted stone with natural stone aggregate blends in with the rich material palette of the Museum Island with its limestone, sandstone and rendered façades, while smooth in-situ concrete dominates the interior spaces. The entrance building is named after one of the city’s most important patrons, James Simon, who bequeathed his art collections and excavation findings to the Berlin State Museums at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Read more
Read less

More information

Label
Architects
Text

David Chipperfield Architects Berlin. David Chipperfield, Martin Reichert, Alexander Schwarz (Design lead). Project architect.- Urs Vogt (Preparation and brief to Technical design, Site design supervision).
 

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Project Team
Text

Mathias Adler, Alexander Bellmann, Thomas Benk, Martin Benner, Alexander Corvinus, Maryla Duleba, Matthias Fiegl, Anke Fritzsch, Dirk Gschwind, Anne Hengst, Paul Hillerkus, Isabel Karig, Linda von Karstedt, Ludwig Kauffmann, Mikhail Kornev, Astrid Kühn, Thomas Kupke, Dalia Liksaite, Jonas Marx, Sebastian von Oppen, Torsten Richter, Elke Saleina, Antonia Schlegel, Thomas Schöpf, Eberhard Veit, Anja Wiedemann

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Collaborators
Text

Quantity surveyor.- Christine Kappei, Stuttgart. Executive architect.- Wenzel + Wenzel Freie Architekten, Berlin (Procurement, Construction supervision) Project mangagement: Christoph-Phillip Krinn. Structural engineer.- IGB Ingenieurgruppe Bauen, Berlin. Services engineer.- INNIUS DÖ GmbH, Berlin; Inros Lackner AG, Rostock. Building physics.- Müller-BBM GmbH, Berlin. Fire consultant.- Arge Brandschutz NEG, Berlin. Lighting consultant.- matí AG, Adliswil. Lighting design.- Conceptlicht GmbH, Traunreut (Outdoor lighting). Landscape architect.- Levin Monsigny Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin.

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Client
Text

Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz represented by the Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung. Project mangagement.- Miriam Plünnecke

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Project controlling
Text

Ernst &Young Real Estate GmbH, Berlin. Kemmermann Projektmanagement im Bauwesen GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Dates
Text

Project start.-1999 / 2007. Construction start.- 2009 (Foundation pit) --- 2014 (Shell and core). Completion.- 2018. Opening.- 2019

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Area
Text

Gross floor area.- 10,900 m².

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Location
Text

Berlin, Germany.

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Photography
Text

Ute Zscharnt.

+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.

Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

Read more
Published on: December 14, 2018
Cite: "James Simon Galerie, new entrance building for Museum Island by David Chipperfield" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/james-simon-galerie-new-entrance-building-museum-island-david-chipperfield> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...