Project Category: Studies/Competitions

Visitors access the new extension via the wide, existing main staircase and the garden wing. The ‘head’ of the new building is formed by the entrance area to the east, starting with a ‘distribution and orientation’ space which latches onto the garden wing. One of the possible tour routes leads from here up into the exhibition rooms on the second floor, via the west stairs to the art sections on the first floor and back to the ‘head’ again, to the Garden Room and the exhibition spaces on the ground floor. The Garden Room has been conceived as an art café; it is here that internal and external spaces, urban and garden areas interact, and it is here that the delights of art and coffee can be enjoyed.
The exhibition rooms are reserved in design: smoked oak parquet floors, smooth plastered and painted walls and ceilings with fluorescent lighting create a restrained background for the works of art. Crystaline, glazed oriel-style windows of varying depths serve as points of orientation for visitors moving from room to room, as well as relaxation zones. The exhibition rooms on the three floors in the main building corpus have been designed to be used in a variety of ways, especially with regard to the juxtaposition of individual pieces in the museum’s collection with groups of works loaned from private collections. This is facilitated by spanning the interior spaces of the building without columns and integrating ventilation ducts in the exterior walls. In addition, a lofty ceiling height creates generously proportioned spatial combinations.
The load-bearing structure of the extension building is of concrete. The façade cladding of rhythmically folded stainless steel sheeting protects the layers of insulation and mirrors the sky, the historic buildings and the trees countless times. The building corpus captures and plays with light, and establishes a presence through the multifaceted reflection of its surroundings while at the same time creating a sense of space and distance to existing museum buildings.

Like the institutional architecture along Rämistrasse, the new museum building boasts a substantial footprint, yet it also references the small scale of the buildings immediately adjacent to it through the configuration of the roof structures.

Inside the extension, a system of ‘squares and pathways’ leads visitors to the open-access facilities and through to the garden at the back, as well as into the exhibition spaces. these ‘passageway spaces’ form generously proportioned, light-filled circulation areas that provide orientation and offer vistas to the exterior, while also displaying artworks. They offer information, set the mood, and give visitors an opportunity to linger and relax.

In contrast, the main exhibition spaces are restrained, concentrated, rectangular rooms with light-diffusing glass ceilings. A range of different light solutions allows carefully controlled levels of daylight to enter the exhibition spaces, creating a lively atmosphere with natural light. To achieve this, daylight is focused into the building laterally through skylight superstructures set atop the building. Conversely, this has the striking effect of making the building glow with its own luminosity when the interior is brightly lit during evening events and residual light filters through to the exterior. The height of these skylight structures varies as a function of the depth of the exhibition spaces and the number of glazed faces on each skylight unit. This rule generates a roof landscape with an engaging relief effect.

The load-bearing structure is primarily in concrete, with steel deployed in the skylight areas. The façade is conceived as a translucent and ‘light-bearing’ wall. It is composed of windows and concrete elements with glass bricks in a range of sizes. Some are more transparent or translucent, others less so, to reflect the distinct requirements of the particular parts of the building. Rear-ventilated elements made up of large-format etched glass bricks protect the lateral glazing in the roof-light units and their louvers. Where the glass bricks are set in front of the insulated load-bearing walls, they form ‘peepholes’ affording occasional blurred glimpses of the wall construction. Glass as a construction material thus appears in a wide range of different manifestations: as matt or reflecting glass, as panes, ‘bricks,’ or solar elements; it may appear pixelated, ‘pointillist,’ or as a smooth expanse of glazing. Glass gives the building its characteristic appearance and conveys a sense that this is a museum building, an architectural genre whose primary function lies in harnessing light to enable the visual perception of artworks.

The Munch/Stenersen Museum is to rise like a “floating peninsula” between the Bjørvika and Bispevika fjords, hovering on piles above the water. Visitors enter the museum through a spacious foyer with adjoining restaurant, museum shop, and conference rooms and then continue on through a security passage, which is of central importance to the museum after the theft of the famous painting The Scream. An imposing staircase lit by a skylight above winds up to the exhibition level.

The six large exhibition halls can be accessed separately via a generous connecting space that not only provides an open area for introductions to guided tours and educational presentations, but also serves as an informal zone where guests can relax and enjoy views of the sea and the city in all directions through large picture windows.

The variously sized exhibition halls by contrast are places for quiet, concentrated art viewing. They offer the desired flexibility - able to be subdivided into smaller units or their ceiling height adapted as needed - as well as the explicitly requested illumination with artificial light.

The museum is set on concrete piles driven into the sea bed, which are visible and become part of the museum design due to the raised position of the platform several meters above sea level. The building hence fulfills the desired functions as a “beacon,” while also alluding to the structural form of an oil platform or a majestic villa atop pilotis. Brownish-red concrete is used throughout as construction material, from the concrete piles to the central hall on the exhibition level.

Direct access from Dufourstrasse is available for special events. However, the principal link to and access from the existing art museum is underground. In the historic building a cascading stair leads down to the wide connecting hallway, where already visitors can enjoy artwork on view. All the levels in the extension are linked via a broad two-flight stairway. The foyer and the delivery area for artworks are set on the ground floor. The collection is housed in rooms on the first floor and the lower level, while the second story accommodates temporary exhibitions.

The arrangement of the floor plan is based on rectangular exhibition rooms. The complex spaces set between them - including the foyer and the linking hallway - offer circulation routes as well as setting the tone and providing areas for art education activities. They punctuate the tour with vistas to the outdoors and also give visitors a chance to pause between rooms. On each floor there are several circuits through the exhibition rooms, which are sequenced by the interposed circulation spaces.

The exhibition rooms on the second floor enjoy natural light from above via a light-diffusing glass ceiling. The skylight superstructure above this captures the daylight through a glass roof equipped with etched panels and shaderoviding photovoltaic units arranged in a grid. On the first floor the rooms that house the collection are illuminated via a lateral skylight. The foyer faces onto the surroundings with large windows.

The building is constructed of concrete and steel components. The load-bearing concept is based on a cross-wall structure with the interaction of walls and ceilings. The surfaces in the intermediate zones and stairways, as well as the façades, are executed in beige limestone concrete. The façades are composed of different cast concrete ‘framing elements,’ set one above another, some flush with the surface and some recessed.

The architectural and urban planning concept underpinning the design is inspired by the notion of a building that is imbued with a sense of the celebratory, yet at the same time is part of everyday life. The center’s architecture features cosmopolitan touches, while remaining rooted in the local context and regional traditions. The large building on a sloping site responds to the square in front of the train station and the adjacent smaller built structures by means of a moderately proportioned wing that extends over the tracks in an open, welcoming gesture.

The roof, incorporating a variety of angles and different shapes, structures the building rhythmically and strikes a balance between expressive and traditional roof pitches. Above the exhibition space and the foyer, skylights are created by folds and bends in the roof. These convolutions settle into a more tranquil configuration over the concert hall and project outward to provide cover over the platforms and the smaller entrance volume on Bahnhofsplatz. Here, a wide stairway by the entrance provides access to the restaurant on the upper floor, which offers a view over the square. From this area the generously proportioned foyer leads into the concert hall and the exhibition spaces. Mineral materials were selected for the surfaces of the foyer and the museum area in the eastern part of the building. The rooms here have varied proportions and receive natural light via high shed roof elements or side windows. A circular path through the building leads down from the upper floor and back up again.

The design for the concert hall is based on a cuboid form. The finely modeled contours of its wooden paneling create a dense mesh of reflecting surfaces, producing rich, well-balanced acoustics. The visual impression in the concert hall is of a bright, warm, wooden space. Metallic particles - gold brass, nickel silver, and copper - shimmer in the pores of the wood, for the concert hall is interpreted as a massive spatial ‘instrument’: a space that captures and reflects sounds and therefore ‘shines forth’ in the materiality of wooden and metal musical instruments.

Two independent structures are utilized in the concert hall to ensure acoustic decoupling. The load-bearing structure is executed with concrete and steel girders, essential for the large spans and the varying configurations of the roof above the center’s various spaces. The shell of the building, which is composed of copper sheets, functions as cladding for the roofs and façades, while at the same time forming a Faraday cage to protect against electromagnetic interference from the nearby railway. In addition, the copper’s brown hue echoes the color palette of the traditional wooden buildings and integrates the contemporary structure into Gstaad’s townscape.