Neues Bauhaus Museum Weimar

Competition Entry 2012

(with Daniel Schuetz)

Treibgut German: “flotsam, jetsam”

The proposed museum consists of fragments of the Bauhaus that have been floating around the world and are now spilled ashore in the vanished Asbach river of Weimar. 

The site is located in a tension-field between different urban identities of the city: the classicistic park in the southwest, the Wilhelminian residences in the north, the Nazi “Gauforum” in the east and the Medieval old town in the south; all these parts of the city collide in this location. They represent different forms of society and their respective ideologies, which are all part of the history of Weimar, Germany and Europe. As such they embody the outer forces that affected the turbulent history of the Bauhaus. This makes the site an ideal place for the construction of the Neues Bauhaus Museum.

The proposed design occupies the emptiness that exists between the surrounding urban structures, while retaining a conceptual distance to its architectural environs. It does not attempt to be part of an ensemble with the adjacent buildings but plays according to its own rules. The existing trees on the site are kept; they become, seemingly by chance, part of the building’s composition. The wooded parts of the slope towards the park also remain untouched. In the area of the museum entrance the slope is partially cut away, creating a new connection between park and city.

The distribution of the program into individual building volumes emphasizes the different phases, tendencies and facets of the historic Bauhaus. Based on the unifying shape of the square, the individual cubes are subdivided in various proportions that are inspired by the graphic principles of the legendary Bauhaus preliminary course. Each of the cubes houses a distinct part of the program, i.e. a chapter of the exhibition. The program is distributed on two levels: The upper level that can be accessed from the city street houses the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The lower level that can be accessed from the park contains the archive, workshops and café. A two-level foyer-cube connects these two levels. The administrative offices are located on a mezzanine floor above the entrance. The delivery of artwork is accommodated in a lower level loading court on Asbachstrasse.

All façades of the cubes are clad with colored glass panels. These panels are opaque in the light-sensitive exhibition spaces. In areas that suggest open views and day-lighting, they become transparent. The façade system continues on the roof surfaces in the form of photovoltaic panels – in the spirit of the unity of art and technology.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.