Harry Gugger Studio wins competition for the German Wallpaper Museum in Kassel.
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The design proposal for the German Wallpaper Museum in the heart of Kassel’s rich museum landscape replaces the existing courtyard building with a cohesive and efficient barrier-free design. The new museum defines both the historically significant Brothers Grimm Square and the street-front along Friedrichstrasse, sucessfuly integrating the building into the existing context.
To underline the importance of the museum at the urban scale, the entrance to the Wilhelmshöher Allee is also redesigned. In front of the museum the existing trees are incorporated into the inclined ground plane leading up to the entrance, and from the Schuddelecke a public garden leads into the building’s courtyard.
The museum spans between the new cantilevered projection parallel to Friedrichstrasse and the original Torwache. This shared volumetric language creates a harmonious relationship between the old and new buildings.
The facade of the new building again refers to the historical buildings by translating the delicate neoclassical rythm of the Fürstenhauses into a flat releif of ornamented and untreated precast concrete elements. The original Fürstenhauses facade is superimposed onto the openings of the new building, effectively weaving together the old with the new. Owing to the ornamental character and scale of the façade, this treatment refers to the museum’s wallpaper collection as it celebrates pictorial wall design.
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Competition Entry
1st Prize
Team:
Architects: Harry Gugger Studio
Structural Engineers: WGG Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure
Museography: Atelier Gillmann & Co. GmbH
Lighting Design: Bartenbach GmbH
Building Technology: Waldhauser Haustechnik
Cost Planning: Tragswerkplanung Ernst & Eitel GmbH
Building Physics: Gartenmann Engineering AG
Façade Planning: PPEngineering
Landscape Architects: Fontana Landschaftarchitektur
Renderings: Rablab
