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Construction Work Begins on the Nationalgalerie’s Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts at the Kulturforum

19.11.2020
Kulturforum

Work is currently beginning at the future site of the Nationalgalerie’s Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts. The museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin at the Kulturforum is being built according to plans by the Swiss architectural offices Herzog & de Meuron.

Several measures are necessary to prepare the site for the construction work:

• The southbound lanes of Potsdamer Straße will be moved and replace the planted centre strips.
• The bicycle path will be moved to a bicycle lane installed on the street; a covered pedestrian walkway will be set up along the construction site.
• The pedestrian traffic lights in front of the Staatsbibliothek (State Library) will be moved 50 metres towards Potsdamer Platz.
• As of January, the “Kulturforum” bus stop for the M48 and M85 lines (headed towards Zehlendorf and Lichtefelde Süd, respectively) will be taken out of service during the construction period. 

Excavation of the building pit will begin as soon as the site has been prepared and construction containers set up. The selected civil engineering company has meanwhile been commissioned.

The new building will be erected on the previously empty site between the Neue Nationalgalerie designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the Philharmonic Hall designed by Hans Scharoun. In future, the Nationalgalerie’s holdings of 20th century artworks will be displayed there, in dialogue with the Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch Collection and the Erich Marx Collection, and supplemented with presentations by the Kunstbibliothek (Art Library) and the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. In addition to approximately 9,000 square metres of exhibition space, areas will be created for art education and outreach, restaurant services, conservation, storage, foyers and two pedestrian boulevards.