Project Group: A_KirchnerMuseumDavos

The daylight enters sideways, into the large overhead lighting spaces (skylights). Then it comes from above, through the etched glass ceiling, into the exhibition rooms. (This skylight solution prevents daylight being blocked out by snow - Davos is at a height of 4921 ft.) For use at night the large overhead lighting spaces above the exhibition rooms also contain the entire artificial lighting system.

The space between the cube-shaped exhibition rooms, constructed in fair-faced concrete, forms the entrance hall. Walking through the museum, visitors will keep returning to this hall, from where one has a view of the surrounding park, the road, the landscape and the town of Davos: all of them objects of Kirchner’s painting.

The museum is clad with a glass facade consisting of a variety of transparent, matt and polished glass. The glass-cladding plays and works with the clear, brilliant alpine light. Depending on the different functions of the glass – bringing light into the building and ensuring visibility – its finish differs: clear and mirror-smooth in the entrance hall to allow a view of the exterior, matt in the skylights to diffuse the incoming light, and matt and profiled as a translucent facade cladding to cover the thermal insulation on the concrete walls. A layer of recycled glass fragments on the roof replays the usual gravel, showing the last and transitory ‘finish’ of glass.

The high cubes of the exhibition rooms are located freely within the park between the old trees. At the same time, the layout reflects the settlement structure of Davos town, with its random placement of detached flat-roofed buildings.