Neues Museum Case Study

The Neues museum, originally designed by Friedrich August struler was completed in 1859. It was built as part of Berlin's 'Museum island', which consists of 5 museums altogether. After the opening of the first museum (the Altes museum) in 1830 which made historically significant collections available to the public for the first time, four more museums were added in order to be able to extend the exhibitions. This collection of museums became known as 'Museum Island'. The Neues museum however was destroyed during the second world war and was bombed to ruins. It was left derelict and exposed to nature for a number of years until David Chipperfield was commissioned in 2003 after winning a competition with his design for the rebuilding of the

The Egyptian courtyard was one of the most damaged sections of the Neues museum and its original insertion had been completely demolished during the war so this was one of the areas Chipperfield had to completely rebuild. The original courtyard insertion featured columns with colourful Egyptian design and light shining in through the middle. This is the where Chipperfields restoration differs most from the original design as Chipperfield inserted what he considered to be 'his interpretation' of the original insertion. The original 'historical structure' was not restored and instead a reflection of it was. A new 'pre-fab' lattice structure constructed from concrete beams was inserted into the Egyptian courtyard. Its supported by ten 24-meter high columns. A vertical free standing platforms divides the space in two and creates a 9 metres gallery below flooded with natural light that shines along the sides of the walls from the glass roof above it. The 'top floor' of this structure houses a new exhibition room. An open void is then created leaving the height and original materiality exposed to be admired. (book) The glass roof structure celebrates vertical light and although the insertion is a high-tech construction it doesn't appear to be due to the use of simplistic materials - glass and

Chipperfield felt the lighting should again highlight the history of the building. The lighting designers relied on Strulers original designs for the building and decided that as a museum, it was only open during the day and so relied heavily on natural sunlight, from the numerous large windows and courtyards. Above the main stair case on either side of the wall stand three 20ft tall windows and so to complement these windows the lighting designers hung electronic lighting systems along the span of the ceiling as no fittings were allowed on the walls. Dark grey shades with a perforation pattern can be seen repeatedly throughout the museum and protect the interiors from glare and direct sunlight. A clear glass roof was added over the Greek courtyard allowing for direct sunlight to seep