Bauhaus Museum
[Faceless Voids]
The Bauhaus, the iconic school of the modern movement, deserves space that recalls the consequences and effects of its academic establishments by means of metaphor. The given site is complicated. Situated between an extremely preserved city and an even more protected english park, the new museum must satisfy many different ideas. Also, existing buildings on the site must be kept, or thoroughly justified for removal. The new Bauhaus Museum will play to all of these forces.
An existing lecture hall currently sits on the site. It has no connection with the english park and has created several lacking urban spaces. Also, as a university service building, it does not fit in so well with the existing structures resting within the park. The new Museum will not keep this structure, but it will not completely remove its presence. The museum will reuse this structure to create a new composition-enter the metaphor.
The existing “L” shaped lecture hall will be stripped down to only what is essential-the underlying brick that supports it and encloses it. The new Museum will then enclose this piece, allowing it to become VOID within a new SOLID. And finally the old brick will become layered with a new brick, essentially “defacing” the structure much as the modern movement once sought to do with all of architecture. Ironically, the execution of this transformation will only tie the old structure into the new structure in the most meaningful of ways. Also, as a consequence, a new, clean entry sequence is created within the whole sequence of the exhibition of works. One wing of the new found void will become an [1]urban courtyard which will connect the entry with a rediscovered [2]urban square. The other wing will be infilled with a central stair, connecting the sequence will all exhibition spaces.
In turn, the urban square becomes activated by the physical connection of the museum to two surrounding structures. Both of these connections are made underground, under the urban square. An archive, a new cafe, and the new museum will all share the auditorium piece of the museum program. Each one of these elements support the movement of the urban space, in turn making connections to the park, to the city, and to the new Museum. Finally, the Museum has a minimalist attitude toward the Park der Ilm. The eastern edge of the structure pushed slightly further into the park, reinforcing the idea of enclosure in this specific area of the park. Then a minimal facade which highlights the structure of the new Museum opens up in specific locations to allow views to the park, to connect from inside-out. Also, the Liszt Garden is re-connected to the Ilm Park, allowing the new Museum to reinforce the connection with its edge. The new museum rests in subtle manner with the existing sequence of the park.
Site: Weimar, Germany
Academic Program: iAAD Bauhaus Weimar Germany
Critic: Karl-Heinz Schmitz
