Spatial relationships
With the extension of the Kunstmuseum, a Basel institution in a prominent inner-city location is being completely redefined. As an exhibition, storage and event venue, the new building is a sign of new beginnings and continuity at the same time. The new, expanded museum now consists of two buildings that form an architectural unit and are directly spatially related to each other via a street running between them. Since their eaves are the same height, the new building is at eye level with the main building. The entrance to the extension building looks over to the arcades of the main building and is correspondingly prominently visible from there. The strikingly recessed corner in the volume of the new building is the symbolic answer to the equally strikingly protruding corner of the old museum building. In addition, the bending new building front performs an inviting spatial gesture that encompasses the entire area of the intersection and thus makes it its forecourt.
Flexible and restrained
On each floor of the extension there are two exhibition wings, which are vertically connected by the central, monumental staircase. Together with the foyer zones, it describes a free, expressive spatial figure illuminated by a large round skylight. In contrast, the exhibition wings are arranged at right angles. The spectrum of rooms varies between small-scale and hall format. On average, however, the new exhibition rooms are significantly larger and thus more flexible than the old ones, but at the same time they correspond to a more classic idea of a museum: they appear calm and restrained, are well proportioned and equipped with timeless materials – spaces that give priority to art. Nevertheless, they exert a strong physical presence. The floors are covered with an industrial parquet made of oak, in which the planks are glued over the entire surface and grouted under each other with a wood cement mortar. The grey plastered load-bearing concrete wall is also not concealed, as can be seen from the door and window reveals. A massive, 10-centimetre-thick plaster wall forms the actual background and background for the paintings. Prefabricated, sandblasted concrete elements span the exhibition rooms as visible construction parts, thus staging the load of the ceiling on the walls. Thanks to these elements, the ceiling itself acquires its own structure that gives direction to the room. In the foyer, the marble of the floor combines with the hot-dip galvanized steel on the walls to create an aesthetic unity that expresses contrast and harmony at the same time. It is this crossover of two materials with such different connotations that gives the building its unmistakable, unique character.
*Source: Emanuel Christ, Christoph Gantenbein
Excerpt from "Ein Haus für die Kunst", from: "Kunstmuseum Basel, Neubau", published by Kunstmuseum Basel/Bernhard Mendes Bürgi, published by Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2016*
Photos: Radu Malasincu
