KSV Krüger Schubeth Vandreike - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano

Thursday, 04 September 2008 02:06

The autonomous province of Bolzano in Alto Adige, sought to join the ranks of international museum metropolises through a striking building. Consequently, early 2001 the province organized an international competition for a Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

KSV Krüger Schubeth Vandreike asserted itself over 284 other offices to win first prize. The architects proposed a museum building of striking simplicity, which embedded in heterogeneous surroundings claims its own highly individual identity. In 2005, the office was commissioned by the autonomous province of Bolzano Alto Adige.

Construction commenced that same year and is scheduled for completion in 2007. Given the diversity of activities and functions the museum was to cover - exhibition space but also art production and its communication, the spatial organization required a great degree of flexibility. The cube measuring 54 meters long and 25 meters high accommodates the majority of functions on four storeys.

Studios and project rooms for artists complement the complex in a separate building on the northern part of the plot. A square which can likewise be used for exhibitions and events stands between the two buildings.

The middle of the cube’s three sections has no intermediate supports making for great flexibility in how the space is used. It is primarily reserved for exhibitions. The two wings house elevators, stairs, art education, administration and an art library. Stairs and elevators are so located that the event area, café, shop, library and project room can be used separately. Moreover, all the levels of the building are linked to one another via the main staircase accessible to the general public. This creates a viable spatial concept that unites the flexibility and openness of a workshop with the benefits of the exhibition rooms offered by a classic gallery. In its efficiency of use it initially calls to mind old familiar models such as the Centre Pompidou.

The two transparent front ends tapering inwards function both as the museum’s showcases and projection surfaces. The technically sophisticated glass facade is conceived as an active climate facade.

The multilayer glass facade acts like a filter: During the daytime light can be directed into the exhibition areas room by room and modulated. When darkness falls the facade becomes a projection surface. The communicating facade becomes a part of the architecture: In their transparency the front end that open out to the old town and landscape while tapering inwards form a contrast to the cube’s closed vertical sides with their textured aluminum cladding panels.

As a result, the building can be discerned from the surrounding mountains as a silver casing, which nestles around the "soft" interior of the museum that is in constant flux. The metallic appearance sets it apart from the natural stone facades that prevail in the region while the technical, progressive connotation of the material signalizes new departures.

Developed in the second planning phase in 2006 by KSV Krüger Schuberth Vandreike and the engineering office Krone Berlin the twin bridge over the Talfer River will in combination with the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art form a link between the Tirol old town and the new Italian town of Bolzano that was created in the 1930s.

The crossing of the river via the two vertically and horizontally curving structures forms a dynamic movement in the landscape. Cyclists and pedestrians use two statically separate structures which appear like sculptures in the landscape.

© Illustrations are courtesy of KSV Krüger Schuberth Vandreike,
© Photographs are courtesy of KSV Krüger Schuberth Vandreike, Ivo Corrà, and Paolo Riolzi as indicated.
No reproduction is allowed without their prior consent.

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