Kunstpalast
Built within less than one year between 1925 and 1926 according to Wilhelm Kreis’ extensive plans, the Ehrenhof constitutes part of the so-called “Dauerbauten” (permanent buildings) of the “Gesolei” exhibition, an abbreviation for healthcare, social welfare, and physical exercise.
Permanent buildings and temporary exhibitions were designed to present a comprehensive panorama of cultural achievements from the high art genres to the presentation of technical innovations and entertainment culture. The complex of permanent buildings is considered to be amongst the largest and most sophisticated representative ensembles of the Weimar Republic.
It consists of the planetarium – today’s Tonhalle, the Reichsmuseum für Gesellschafts- und Wirtscjaftskunde – today the NRW-Forum, as well as two museum buildings facing each other: To the west, overlooking the Rhine, the Kunstmuseum, the “new building” from 1926. To the east, the Kunstpalast, which was built upon an older, neo-baroque structure dating back to the turn of the century. Already referred to as “Kunst-Palast” at the time, it underwent renovations as part of the Gesolei program, receiving a new façade and significant interior alterations, seamlessly integrating it into the overall ensemble. The complex is complemented by the large Rheinterassen restaurant on the banks of the Rhine. The two museums, Kunstpalast and Kunstmuseum, which stood vis-à-vis, were connected to the north by a transverse bar. With the motif of a triumphal arch it formed the prelude and entrance to the Gesolei exhibition grounds, which extended over 2 kilometers approximately to the current position of the Theodor-Heuss bridge.
In contrast to the historicizing museum architecture of the previous 150 years, Kreis’ Kunstmuseum was considered the most modern museum building to date and a pioneer of classical modernism in museum architecture: The elongated museum rooms, organized by support columns, radiate a sobriety that was previously not usual for cultural buildings. As in modern office architecture, the floor plan can be flexibly divided. Contemporary witnesses described the rooms as more reminiscent of a factory hall than a museum. On the 1st floor, the exhibition areas were illuminated by skylights, the design of which actually originated from factory building designs.
At the latest, with the renovation by Helmut Hentrich in the 1980s, the two museum buildings became one, connected building. The previously open triumphal arch in the north wing was given a façade for the first time on the 1st and 2nd floor (which was added in the course of this renovation). Both buildings were now connected under one name. The imbalance between the exhibition wing in the east and the collection wing in the west, resulting from the demolition of the original Kunstpalast, which remained preserved behind the Kreis façade, and the subsequent new construction by Ungers in the early noughties, was exacerbated by large areas of the collection wing becoming inaccessible to the public due to water damage and structural problems. With the additional orientation of the new exhibition wing in the lower foyer to the east and the partially removed connection between collection and temporary exhibition spaces, the two wings of the building were no longer perceptible as one unit.
When we began planning the new Kunstpalast in 2017, our aim was to ensure that the building, with its different areas of collection, temporary exhibition, gastronomy, Robert- Schumann-Hall, administration, Palast Studio, etc., once again perceivable as a single cohesive institution whose various activities render the Ehrenhof a lively urban space. These areas should find an appropriate location within the building. The spatial quality of the Ehrenhof was to be improved in order to invite visitors of the museum, as well as casual passers-by alike to linger. The interior appearance of the building was to regain a unity that is appropriate to the overall ensemble, but without entirely destroying the traces of time. Ultimately, we wanted to build a museum that the citizens of the city could enjoy and be proud of. Their museum – which even has a place where the can celebrate themselves.
As a result, the entrance to both parts of the museum, the collection and temporary exhibition spaces, was relocated into the east wing of the building. Here, in a central location, visitors enter the museum. Whether you visit a temporary exhibition, the collection, or the Robert-Schuman-Hall, at this location the entrance, ticket office, museum, store, and cloakroom can be found. The tour of the museum begins and ends here.
The sequence of rooms for the two-story tour of the collectionwas developed on the basis of the building grid as specified by Wilhelm Kreis, which is consistent in terms of the façade and column position. Kreis’ museum building adheres to the traditional typology which is derived from the two historical basic types of “gallery” and “cabinet of curiosities,” or “studiolo.” Formalized and established in the 19th century, this typology is still valid today. Today, as a hundred years ago, a museum needs a sequence of simple rooms, small and large, halls and cabinets, well-lit and clear in presentation.
It was therefore by no means a question of working against the system, breaking it up, or introducing a new typology. The given structure is well-dimensioned and offers the advantage that it leaves room for future developments. Through staying within the structural specifications, a freedom is created to change rooms and, therefore, take future developments into account, without disturbing or questioning the sequence of rooms. Rather, the aim was to create a contemporary relationship between the rooms, appropriate to the specific task. It is not just an enfilade with hierarchically defined dominants, main, and secondary axes. Instead, it is a meandering sequence of clearly defined rooms of different sizes, which repeatedly ensures a change of direction and perspective, in the course of which carefully curated highlights are to be found: The two halls with the new spiral staircases connecting the floors of the collection, the two foyers, and the belvedere. Further motifs encompass the strategic placement of thematically defined special rooms, bespoke children’s rooms characterized by their distinct scale and aesthetics, as well as the targeted opening of the façade to the outside and the rooms to the inside. These placements provide visitors with orientation along their route, opens views towards the Ehrenhof and the multi- story foyers, and at the same time increases the buildings complexity. The tour of the collection was given a uniform and seamless floor made of light oak boards. All doors within the tour are permanently open. The vertical connection of both floors of the tour is made appropriate to the building through the installation of two new personnel elevators and the two large spiral staircases.
The Palast Studio with its two large studio rooms, media room, darkroom, etc. and the associated ancillary rooms is located at the southern turning point of the collection tour. It is the place where art is taught in a practical way, not only for school classes. A place of creative exchange. On the 2nd floor with its skylight, separated from the exhibition rooms only by a glass wall, it receives adequate visibility and presence. At the same time, it is easily and barrier-free accessible from the outside via side entrances and can therefore be continuously used, even during potential exhibition changes.
A central component of the measure is the new museum restaurant. Previously located on the first floor of the foyer, accessible only to guests already inside the museum, it has been moved to a new position, now accessible to everyone and independent of the museum’s opening hours. With its new terrace, it substantially contributes to the revitalization of the location as a whole. Another new aspect is the significantly expanded and specified gastronomic offering. All gastronomic facilities, including adjoining rooms, are barrier-free accessible.
The Anna Maria restaurant, open from 11am to 1am, is located on the ground floor of the Belvedere, inside the former gateway to the exhibition grounds, which remains public space in some respects through its conversion into a restaurant. It closes off the courtyard with slender, anthracite-colored steel windows, that contribute to the courtyard no longer being perceived primarily as a passageway. The quality of stay within the Ehrenhof is significantly enhanced by this measure. Nevertheless, the passageway remains visually open to the north and south simultaneously due to the restaurant’s effect.
The Belvedere on the first floor offers a fantastic view to the north towards the banks of the Rhine, but above all to the south across the Ehrenhof with the old town behind it. This room, most likely the most beautiful one, is optionally a part of the museum tour but can equally be isolated from it and hired for events. On the second floor a bridge leads through the high room, connecting the two parts of the tour.
This semi-public gastronomical vertical is complemented by the legendary, reconstructed Creamcheese on the second floor. Like the Belvedere, the Creamcheese can equally be either part of the museum tour or be visited as a bar independently of the museum’s opening hours.
Our main focus in this project was to render the Kunstpalast tangible as a building that enters into a dialog with its outside area, the Ehrenhof, from which the location and the building benefit equally. To find the right balance between existing substance and newly added. To address and answer the question of how to deal with what previous generations left to us, and contemplate the buildings significance for its location and the community in the future.
