The International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship (1986), 5, 19-26

The German Museum of Architecture

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In the early 1920s the Frankfurt City Architect, Ernst May, had wanted international support to found a museum for urban building, and in 1913 thirty-~ architectural associations of Germany had demanded the foundation of a museu architecture; but more than half a century was to elapse after the first proposals b the Federal Republic finally achieved what in the meantime Helsinki, Amster Stockholm, Breslau, Tokyo and Moscow had already realized, namely a Museu Architecture. The bank of the Main lying opposite the modern core of the ci Frankfurt is one of the municipal areas which was spared the new buildings boon has been scheduled in its entirety as an ancient monument. A row of 'griinderzeit' of the century) villas with gardens and parks provides an impressively coherent ex~ of town planning, which has acquired a new and positive sense of purpose throug planning of the 'Museum Riverbank'. For the Museum of Architecture propose Professor Oswald Matthias Ungers, a pair of formerly private 1902 semi-detached was available, and in accordance with the design they had to be comp disembowelled. Inside, a pure white reinforced concrete construction was built.

1. German Museum of Architecture, Frankfurt-am-Main: the villas (1902) on the Schaumainkai before adaptation.

0260-4779/86/01 0019-08 $03.00 ~) 1986 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd

20 The German Museum of Architecture

2. Isometric cut-away drawing " " German Museum of

are, Frankfurt-am-

centre-piece of the installation is the 'House-in-House', which, carried on four supports, increasingly asserts itself over three floors, until it culminates in a 'primitive hut', which is intended to be purely and simply the symbol of Architecture. This stands under a large expanse of skylight, and daylight falls across its facades and through balustraded openings, which visually link the exhibition floors with each other as far as the first storey. The severe square design of the room structure, the exclusive use of pure white, and the control of daylight and artificial light dematerialize the area and underscore the abstract spatial experience: the Museum becomes a place of Spiritual Absorption. A Benedictine conception of architecture becomes apparent here, one which has its roots in classic white Modern just as in historic architecture.

The architectural concept of the house is also evident in the single-storey, enclosed exhibition hall, which is to be found behind the old building and on the site of the former garden. In its centre is an open cube functioning as an inner courtyard. The pre-existing old chestnut tree stands as a contrast to this perfect spatial grid: a symbol of the dichotomy between planned and natural space. The hall and old building are surrounded by a glazed gallery, which on the faqade is expanded into an arcaded entrance ball, and thus the old villa has itself become an exhibit. This building is not only a house for

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architecture, but also one about architecture: an object lesson built for the architect the present as much as for the preservation of ancient monuments.

Approved by the Frankfurt City Council in 1979, the German Museu Architecture was formally opened by the Federal Minister for Building on 1 June and as an institution it has assumed the task of providing a forum for contro~ discussions about the priority of social, technical or aesthetic factors in building. done through a variety of thematic or biographical exhibitions, lectures, sympos the museum's publications. 'Today such a museum has the educational/political t propagating the concept of environmentally appropriate architectures' (Heinrich I~ Thus the Museum encourages close cooperation with the architectural associations Federal Republic as well as related institutions at home and abroad, and aroul exhibitions are shown each year. The opening exhibition, Review of Moderns, whi the first time dealt with the theme of the most important international projects Post-Moderns, i.e. the contemporary break with the traditional dogma of the Mo, was also shown in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and is expected to be seeJ in Naples, Madrid, New York and Tokyo. Already more than half a million peopl, seen this exhibition, and its sequel in 1986 will be the exhibition Vision of the Mo which has as its theme the continuity of the Moderns from the 1920s to the presen In the middle of 1985, the exhibition Building Today gave a general view of p building in the Federal Republic, whilst other exhibitions were Hessen vermess, untranslatable pun, but the theme was disruption of the town and village environr and the satirical exhibition of Building, Stones, Debris, together with Pictur Frankfurt (the collection of the future Museum of Modern Art in Frankfur t ) , Lloyd Wright, Hans-Dieter Schaal, Ben Willikens--Metaphysics of Space, al exhibition on Architectural Drawings throughout 200 Years.

3. Interior of the Lecture Room, with the painting Last Supper by Ben Willikens and seating designed by O.M. Ungers.

22 The German Museum of Architecture

4. Ground-floor gallery space in the old building of the German Museum of Architecture (level 2).

The German Museum of Architecture, which is the only architectural museum in the world to collect systematically documentary material relating to current international architecture, has already in its possession about 10 000 plans and drawings on this theme, as well as about 700 models. In addition there are architectural pictures, and a collection devoted to interior design is being built up. On its own premises the Museum has available only a small restoration depot, to which the workshop is attached. In terms of space no other solution was possible, so that in the daily operations of the Museum this results in almost all models not on display, all their plinths and those elements of the movable wall system which are not actually forming part of an exhibition, have to be stored in an external depot (about 10 km away). This entails increased transport costs, as well as organizational overtime. The architectural pictures, too, as well as the objects for the Interior Design Department's collection have to be accommodated in the external depot. The collection of drawings is kept in plan-chests in the Museum itself, on the fifth floor, the level of the 'House-in-House'. The paper restoration studio is also on this level, so that, happily in this case, for restoration work and preparation of plans for mounting drawings for exhibitions, short distances are the order of the day.

Within subsidiary areas, the Museum has a main library (so far, about 8000 books, 70 magazine subscriptions), and a slide and photographic library as well as a video library. At present the book library is being listed and catalogued. For this purpose, on level 6, there is a floor not accessible to the public, where exhibition materials are stored. After completion of the inventory and catalogue work, the book library is to find its permanent place in the 'House-in-House' on level 5. However, for everyday work in the Museum, level 5 is in some ways a problem; because from level 3 of the 'House-in-House' the roof (level 6) is visible, and all the visitors naturally want to inspect the crowning termination of this super-symbol, the 'primitive hut'. At the same time, however, the administrative areas, i.e. two secretariats, the Director's room, the two offices of the curators and the paper workshop are on the same floor. Here the administration of the Museum and its scholarly work takes place, and here too the

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5. First-floor exhibition display area (level 3).

important individual visitors such as architects and other museum colleagues arrive, in order to discuss exhibitions, lectures, etc. Rivalry between these two uses is unavoidable, but we have organized ourselves so that this level is regarded as a 'half-open' area, which can be visited only in the company of a supervisor. So far the slide and photographic and video libraries have been accommodated in the curators' offices. Should these secondary areas ever be brought fully into public use, they will also have to be integrated into the exhibition areas. For instance, it is under consideration to use the 'House- in-House ' element of level 4 as a publicly accessible video centre where, on demand, interviews with architects or thematic films may be viewed on monitors.

6. Second-floor exhibi- tion display area (level 4).

24 The German Museum of Architecture

7. Second-floor exhibi- tion display area (level 4) with movable display walls in position.

8. The 'House-in-House' on level 5 which, as a symbol of Architecture, is the culmination of the reinforced concrete construction in the core of the adapted old building.

Within the display areas we have satisfactory experience of our movable wall system. It consists of three elements--walls, lintels and supports--each of which has to be of the same thickness as the concrete supports and parapets. This makes it possible for the existing permanent areas to be extended or modified more or less seamlessly by the movable walls constructed of timber. For the very varied requirements of the different exhibitions there thus exists a comprehensive repertoire of spatial variations, each of which can be constructed with the help of the house staff in three to five days. The lighting systems are similarly varied, and in the exhibition spaces on levels 3 and 4 there

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are two light-track systems on the ceiling. The inner circuit is fitted with fluorescent tubes, and the outer with downlights and wallwashers, which can be fitted to any position on the two tracks. After being set up, the exhibitions are then 'lit', taking in each case one to two days. In the exhibition hall on level 2 the normal lighting is provided by indirect illumination, reflected from the coved ceiling, which can be dimmed in three phases; and in the room with four piers, the two-storey lecture room in the old building, there is also a dimmable lit ceiling. On one of its narrow sides this area has stepped seating, above which in a reinforced parapet has been installed a computer-controlled audiovisual slide-projector unit (12 Kodak carousels, hardware from Electrosonic). Here audiovisual presentations of larger exhibition themes, or even permanent presentations relating the history, construction and programming of our building, are projected onto a retractable screen on the opposite narrow wall.

The surrounding glass galleries and the glass roof above the 'House-in-House' have sailcloth shades for days with strong solar radiation, as drawings on transparent paper, and water-colours and felt-pen sketches too, are very sensitive to light.

The design of the plinths that carry models deserves a quite detailed study. At first we decided to develop these plinths as individual white cubes with each one made specially for an individual model. As this in the long run would have become not only cost-intensive but also space-devouring, we now make plinths in only four sizes: 50 × 50 x 100cm high; 50 x 50 × 50cm high; 25 x 25 x 100cm high; 25 x 25 × 50cm high. Placed one on top of another on the same alignment axis as the acrylic glass dome housing a model, an 'architectural' image is produced, which suits both the building and the white temporary exhibition frames. These incidentally are made in three standard

9. Modular design of furniture created by O.M. Ungers for the German Museum of Architecture and manufactured by Rosenthal.

10. Interior of the rear exhibition hall of the German Museum of Architecture, Frankfurt-am- Main, which was opened in June 1984.

26 The German Museum of Architecture

11. The rear exhibition hall, on the site of the former garden, with the pre-existing chestnut tree and the exhibition cubicles open to the sky.

sizes (DIN A0, DIN A1 and DIN A2), though from time to time other sizes need to be specially made.

Today the Museum has the following staff: one director; two curators (keepers); two restorers (paper and model); one administrative employee; one secretary; one technician; one museum workman; one janitor; five security attendants. In addition, there are working contracts for scientific freelance contributors. We have decided, for the next 5 years at least, to display only changing exhibitions, in order to be able to tackle current problems. This certainly increases the workload, both scholarly and exhibition-wise, but it is much more stimulating and intensive than what could be achieved with exhibitions entirely drawn from permanent collections. As we prepare our catalogues ourselves, scientific discussion with each other is continuous and intense. The entire staff takes part in one way or another in the changing of the exhibitions, thereby developing an intense response to the objects exhibited. In general, the process of setting up an exhibition, with all its deadline stress, provides the happiest phases of our work. Contact between individual colleagues is at its most intense at these times, and through this concerted effort towards a common goal each experiences directly the work of the others.

Acknowledgements Translated from the German by David Porter.

Photographic credits: Nos 1 and 11, Meier-Ude, Frankfurt-am-Main; No. 3, Waltraud Krase, Munich; Nos 4-8, Ingrid Voth-Amslinger, Munich; Nos 2, 9 and 10, Museum.