schneider+schumacher

Description

The new addition to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt adjoins the garden wing dating from the early 20th century, the first expansion of the museum originally built on Schaumainkai in 1878. In contrast to the previous extensions, the latest one is not above-ground, but rather inserted as a spacious new museum hall beneath the Städel garden. The interior of the new garden halls is distinguished by an elegantly curving ceiling that seems to float above-head, resting only on twelve slim columns. No less than 195 circular skylights with a diameter of up to 2.5 metres provide the garden halls with natural light while creating a unique and arresting polka-dot pattern in the garden above. From the outside, this new lawn with its humps makes for a completely new experience of the garden. “Frankfurt is getting not only a special, a unique new exhibition building”, the competition jury concluded, “but also one that represents state-of-the-art ‘green building’.”