David Chipperfield-designed James-Simon-Galerie opens on Museum Island in Berlin

The primary function of the James-Simon-Galerie, explains Urs Vogt, Chipperfield’s project architect, ‘is to take the load of mass tourism’ and accommodate a projected peak rate of 10,000 visitors per day. Its other function is as a 24/7 public space. Hence, the architects pushed the technical functions of the building down into the basement, leaving the top as a ‘landscape, which connects views from the city to the island and back the other way’.

The modern building is rooted in its context – a long colonnade of slender pillars on top of the building is a stripped-down echo of the extensive 19th-century colonnades designed by Friedrich August Stüler on the rest of the island. Its visual dominance underscores the structure’s role as a simultaneously functional, connective and public space.

With its monolithic exterior of precast, sandblasted concrete and aggregate of local marble and sand, the building appears simple, but hides its own structural complexity. The island is basically a swamp and the entire building is sitting on 1,200 micropiles up to 50m long. The architecture guides visitors from the glazed café area to the shop and cloakrooms, into the basement to the 300-seat auditorium, 650 sq m shared exhibition space, and the underground entrances to the future ‘archaeological promenade’ due for completion in 2025/26. ‘You can walk through the whole building without actually opening a door, except for the auditorium – everything is open,’ says Vogt. §Connection with Pergamon museum. Plinth and tall colonnade.

United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

WATCH: Sarabande's David Abrahams and Joshua Beaty Join Forces | LOVESarabande proteges DavidAbrahams and JoshuaBeaty, recently collaborated on a theatrical fashion photography project. Click below to watch the full film, where the pair discuss their collaborative process whilst painting one another's faces.
Source: THELOVEMAGAZINE - 🏆 25. / 68 Read more »

Campaign for Yorkshire cycle tunnel is backed by landownerDavid Sunderland says he will block works to close disused Queensbury rail tunnel
Source: The Guardian - 🏆 84. / 53 Read more »

Christine Lagarde resigns from International Monetary FundDavid Lipton named as acting managing director Does this have anything to do with Ivanka? Whoa!!! because she has been 'democratically' elected as the new head of the Ecb
Source: The Independent - 🏆 80. / 59 Read more »

British tourist could be paralysed after Benidorm water park accidentDavid Briffaut broke his neck at Aqualandia after hitting water at the bottom of a slide
Source: The Guardian - 🏆 84. / 53 Read more »

David Squires on … Daniel Sturridge's dog and football's great crime novelistOur cartoonist on the only sport story that anyone in the world is really talking about
Source: The Guardian - 🏆 84. / 53 Read more »

Police investigating national security leak grilled whistleblower about journalistsExclusive: federal agents pressed David McBride on whether journalists knew they might be breaking the law, fuelling belief police tried to build case against ABC and Fairfax But lets not mention Assange shall we!
Source: The Guardian - 🏆 84. / 53 Read more »