Neues Museum Berlin

Book excerpt: This book, edited by David Chipperfield, documents his most important project to date: the Neues Museum, the centrepiece of the Berlin Museumsinsel. Here he connects the old and new in a completely novel way. As he says himself, he proceeded like a painter, who painstakingly considers every dab of paint. Photographs by Candida Höfer show the rooms after their completion and before they were furnished. As Höfer avoided using artificial light, the rooms are bathed in a soft natural light. These critical moments are perfectly reproduced in the book as matt colour plates. The photographer is inspired by the empty rooms and grandiose corridors of space to then dedicate her attention to the architects interventions. This artistic-photographic documentation is complemented by texts from wellknown architects, architectural historians, art historians and conservation architects. They highlight the fundamental principles of the project of conservation and complementation. Kenneth Frampton discusses the almost historical endeavour to restore such a building and responds to Chipperfields architectural interventions, purely abstract forms that avoid any trace of kitsch. Joseph Rykwert describes the fragmented history of which this building is evidence, thanks to its many layers. An interview with David Chipperfield byWolfgangWolters imparts insights into the problems and questions that the restoration posed, and in his contribution, ThomasWeski takes a closer look at Candida Höfers photography. In addition, a chronology offers an overview of the history of the building, the request for proposals for its reconstruction and the restoration itself.