For the 20th anniversary of the Neues Museum Nuremberg, Volker Staab's first work, the museum presented an exhibition by Staab Architekten in the six façade rooms. Through planned and built projects, it became clear how profound the influence of context is on the work of Staab Architekten and how broadly our office interprets the term "context." 
During the five-month exhibition, the museum's façade spaces were put in scene in an uanusual way. Transparent image planes changed the effect of the formative visual axes and visual references in the building, transforming the open spatial areas into light-filled berths. This intervention not only made clear the museum's relationship to the square in front of it but also played with the building's basic idea of allowing the cut-open museum spaces to become visible behind the glass façade.

04.07.2020–10.01.2021
Neues Museum
Klarissenplatz, 90402 Nuremberg

What can contemporary architecture in the context of the Bauhaus look like that does not run the risk of appearing like 'Bauhaus architecture'? To avoid falling into clichés, the design for the extension of the Bauhaus Archive draws on the programmatic specificity of the Bauhaus rather than stylistic elements associated with it. At the same time, the design addresses the question of how to deal with Walter Gropius' existing building, which was in danger of being relegated to the second row given the required building volume. The topography of the site and the winding access to the old building ultimately offered the key to how the idiosyncrasy of the house could be preserved and yet something emblematically new added to the building.

September 6, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.
Festival Center at Ernst-Reuter-Platz, 10587 Berlin

tip Berlin 18/2019
Interview with Volker Staab
By Iris Braun

ZOO Magazin, NO.63
Total Transparency. Bauhaus in Berlin: An Interview with Volker Staab
Review by Bettina Krause

Edition Detail, 2018
Published by Sandra Hofmeister
ISBN 9783955534516 (DE/EN)