Design Development

The entire façade facing Scharounplatz is glazed, making the diverse activities on the inside visible. The open glass façade is inviting and connects the museum with the surrounding urban space. The central exhibition area on the first floor presents itself as an exposed concrete cube.

The outdoor stairway in front of the multifunctional media room at the north façade is a separate entrance and a place to linger. On the other side, a balcony provides outdoor seating for the museum café.

The large stairway with seating steps in the middle lead from the north entrance into the basement floor. They can be used for audience seating for special events. 

The museum is enclosed in a mineral envelope that appears to be layered in a textile, homogeneous, and relief-like manner, all at the same time. Using composite concrete elements with inset bricks creates a connection to the brick façade of St. Matthäus-Kirche (St. Matthew Church) and gives the powerful, reclining shape a delicate, lively expression.

The east façade is characterized by closed sections of gallery walls on the lower floor and large sections of open brickwork, which lets light through, on the upper floor. Daylight can enter specific areas of the museum, and at the same time, it illuminates the museum from inside during the evening hours.

The two one-story doors in the south façade are delivery entrances to the museum. The Neue Nationalgalerie can be seen through the large window in the upper floor. An angled metal wall allows daylight to penetrate the lower floor at the site of the planned underground passageway to the Neue Nationalgalerie. The slightly reflecting character of the window integrates the museum into the surroundings, as do the windows in the west façade.