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Neue Nationalgalerie finally reopens in Berlin following a David Chipperfield Architects-led restoration

2021-08-24T13:16:00-04:00

Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie is finally back open following a six-year, $160 million refurbishment by David Chipperfield Architects.

The original Mies van der Rohe building from 1968 now features a restored glass facade, expanded exhibition space, sculpture garden, and improved LED lighting.

Chipperfield incorporated an earlier unrealized design for a Bacardi Rum corporation building in Cuba. The building itself was taken apart in 35,000 individual segments which each required their own 16-digit bar codes.

“We had to turn over every stone,” DCA’s Martin Reichert told the Art Newspaper last week before the museum reopening. “But we had to treat it with the same care shown by restorers handling a world-famous artwork. After 50 years of use with no refurbishment, there were a great many deficits—this was not just a case of fixing things, it was about making sure it survives the next 30 to 40 years without additional renovation work.”

Take a look at the Chipperfield-refurbished Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin

2021-05-27T17:29:00-04:00

Nearly a decade after being appointed to refurbish one of Modernism's most iconic buildings, the team of architect David Chipperfield wrapped up construction on the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

In a recent virtual ceremony, the keys were handed over to the clients — Berlin State Museums and Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation — and the building is being readied now to re-open to the public in August with an exhibition of Alexander Calder sculptures.

The gallery, which first opened in 1968, is the only building designed by German-born architect and former Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Europe after his emigration to the United States in 1937.

"The existing building fabric has been refurbished and upgraded to current technical standards with a minimum of visual compromise to the building’s original appearance," notes a statement from David Chipperfield Architects. "The functional and technical upgrades include air-conditioning, artificia...

Modernizing a modernist icon: Neue Nationalgalerie to reopen next summer after Chipperfield-led renovation

2020-11-04T13:46:00-05:00

The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is set to reopen in the summer of 2021, more than six years after it closed for renovation, with an exhibition of the American sculptor Alexander Calder in the temple-like steel-and-glass upper level of the building. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and first opened in 1968, the museum is undergoing a €100m modernisation and refurbishment by the Berlin-based British architect David Chipperfield [...].

Reflecting on the significance, and also quirks, of Mies van der Rohe's 1967 New National Gallery, the architect of the ambitious renovation project, David Chipperfield, told the New York Times in a 2017 interview: "Mies took architecture to its extreme. And as a result, the building has some… let’s not call them flaws — it has some challenges, which we’ve had to address."

"Mies really was a magician": David Chipperfield on the challenges of renovating the Neue Nationalgalerie

2017-09-28T14:27:00-04:00

“We’re like surgeons around a body,” said David Chipperfield as he looked at Berlin’s New National Gallery. The building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the 20th century’s greatest architects, was almost as bare as it had been at its topping-out ceremony, in April 1967. The British architect and his lieutenant, Martin Reichert [...] surveyed the dirty steel frame and exposed concrete walls atop weed-strewn sand. “We’ve opened him up and now we’re looking at him.’”

Roughly half-way through the enormous undertaking of renovating Mies van der Rohe's 1967 masterpiece, the New National Gallery in Berlin, David Chipperfield allows us a glimpse into the structure's completely gutted belly, chats about the challenges of touching an icon, and shares some of the personal lessons he learned about the gallery's original architect.

"Mies took architecture to its extreme,” Chipperfield tells the New York Times' Gerrit Wiesmann. "And as a result, the building has some… let’s not call them flaws — it has some challenges, which we’ve had to address."

Take a look at ZHA's competition entry for the Neue Nationalgalerie extension in Berlin

2017-01-09T17:06:00-05:00

Patrik Schumacher, the current head of Zaha Hadid Architects, posted a few photos on his Facebook showing the firm's designs for the Neue Nationalgalerie extension competition. Over 40 firms participated in the competition before Herzog and de Meuron were announced as the winners. The Danish office Lundgaard & Tranberg took second place and the third prize was awarded to the Berlin-based office Bruno Fioretti Marquez. The project brief stipulated that the design must complement the existing Neue Nationalgalerie building, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe.

Weekly News Round-Up for January 19, 2015

2015-01-26T20:46:00-05:00

Sunday, January 25:

Aaron Betsky To Lead Taliesin West: Effective immediately, Betsky will "set the intellectual tone or the School " as it undergoes a rough and potentially definitive funding period.

Friday, January 23:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House to reopen once again in February: So culminates a six-year and nearly $4.4M restoration project, to return the house to its early 20th century state.

Thursday, January 22:

Megataaaall Shanghai Tower enters final construction phase: It's 632 meters tall, symbolizes China's Future, and is flanked by two other skyscrapers repping China's Past and Present.

David Chipperfield pledges to carefully "optimize" Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie: Chipperfield also renovated Berlin's Neues Museum, and plans to "keep as much Mies as possible".

Wednesday, January 21:

'Can of Ham' skyscraper coming to London after all: Delayed since 2008 after the financial crisis hit, the hamscraper will sit in close company to London's Gherkin.

Monday, January...

David Chipperfield pledges to carefully "optimize" Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie

2015-01-22T14:56:00-05:00

The restoration of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin will cost an estimated €101m [...]. This masterpiece by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which opened in 1968, was closed in early January. David Chipperfield Architects has been entrusted with the refurbishment project, having found international acclaim for its work on rebuilding the Neues Museum on Museum Island in Berlin. The British architect pledged to “keep as much Mies as possible” at a symposium in late November.