Schaumagazin Köln-Brauweiler

The Schaumagazin Brauweiler by Mark Mückenheim and Frank Zeising is an art storage building that is open to the public. Besides the open depots it also incorporates a large museum type exhibition space. The program was the guiding force for the concept of this fairly new building type: “Mies van der Rohe vs. Sir John Soane” – a Miesian hall, a “universal space”, that is surrounded by open cabinet spaces that refer to the famous exhibition layout in the Sir John Soane Museum in London. This organization, much like a reading room surrounded by book stacks in a classic library layout, renders itself perfect fort he purposes of this museum. Eighty percent of the building mass is organized underground therefore, the volumetric impact of the museum in the protected cloister garden in Brauweiler near Cologne, Germany is minimized. The skin of the building is a high tech shell consisting of solar panels and tinted windows providing natural lighting inside the building. This roof also generates enough energy to render the building as self-sufficient and CO2 neutral. The consequential black skin of the facetted geometry reflects its surrounding in ever changing ways, this refers poetically to the constant changes of the exhibitions inside the very flexible structure. The classical exhibition building in a park is a pavilion or the orangery. The Schaumagazin Brauweiler in the historic cloister garden is seen as such. It respectfully remains reticent towards its environment. Its guise can not be associated with a distinct or known architectural typology and its dialectic with the surrounding park evokes more landscape like connotations or those of a temporary spatial structure, rather than those of a conventional building. The ensemble of the park, the historic abbey and the other surrounding buildings is not disturbed but supplemented with a spatial structure that engages in a suspenseful dialogue with its surrounding. The very cautiously placed building is in its harmonic form and self-contained façade design very unassuming, but at the same time, its arcane otherness creates a confident vibrancy that is extremely appealing and attracting to potential visitors. Organization: The possibility of the urban cautiousness is achieved through a very efficient arrangement of the interior spaces. The exhibition building is organized downwards from the entrance level. The Schaumagazin is therefore well proportioned in height relation to the surrounding buildings and the cloister garden. Only a fourth of the spatial program of approx. 40000sqft is above ground. As the second of two anticipated construction stages is also completely below ground and connected to the first as one singular building and coupled space, the underground concept achieves another important advantage for the efficient use of the museum. The differentiated spatial sequences that render themselves perfect for a number of sophisticated and efficient exhibition designs also allow the visitor to experience multifaceted and impressive spatial encounters of high diversity.The direct spatial connection of the first and second construction stages creates a combined building for the whole spatial program and the art collections. The underground connection to the depot area in the adjoining old barn is leaving both buildings as independent urban entities and also opens up the possibility of a third construction stage in the courtyard of the historic farm estate to the west. The remote building site, that was thought as a location for the second construction phase, in the western area of the cloister garden stays open for even further long-term developments. The Schaumagazin keeps its respect to its environment thus creating spectacular interior spaces in a very simple manner. These spaces are perfectly organized for any given exhibition activity in the building allowing for a number of up to date museum didactics and contemporary exhibition layouts. The spatial worlds that are created by this architecture and the mysterious and confident cubature in the park stimulate an attraction that justify the buildings content. The tension between the universal exhibition space (Mies) and the cabinet spaces (Soane) is the concept to master the exceptional position of this outstanding new building type. It takes the visitor on a journey through a unique world into a fascinating expedition into the different art collections that are harbored within the building. urban environments architects ; Stufe4Principals: Mark Mückenheim, Frank ZeisingLandscape: ClubL94 – Burkhard WegenerStructure: Fuehrer, Kosch, Juerges Engineers – Prof. Winfried F. Führer, Dipl.-Ing. Ulrich KoschHVAC: Ingenieurgemeinschaft TEN Trümper-Erpenbach-Nordhausen GmbH – Dipl.-Ing. Werner Hegemann Building Physics: knp.bauphysik – Christoph Hämmerling Artistical consultant: Mareike FoeckingTeam: Rafael Drzymalla, Denise StellaModel: Anikó Krén