Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe Read more

The listed Kunsthalle on Schlossplatz in Karlruhe is to receive a modern museum infrastructure and to be supplemented by a new building on the neighboring Amtsgericht (district court) site in a second construction phase. A simple intervention will lay the foundation for the solution of both tasks. The currently unused courtyard of the four-winged building will be lowered by one story and roofed over, becoming the new center of the building. The building, which has grown out of four building phases, is complemented by a new time layer – polished exposed concrete in the base and a slender glass roof placed freely in the courtyard – creating an atmospherically dense and versatile foyer. The historic main entrance with its opulent staircase opens onto the new foyer in the courtyard. A wide stairway leads visitors down to the foyer and directs their view to the passage that connects the historical and the new building under the street. The varied sequence of spaces, through the high, naturally lit foyer, the vaulted former drawing room and the new undercrossing, leads to the second foyer of the new Kunsthalle, which also has a glazed roof. The visual resemblance of the foyers deeply links the buildings of the Kunsthalle to form a unit.
As part of the idea competition, the extension building was outlined as a sign of renewal behind the district court’s grid façade from the 1960s, leaving the historicizing appearance of the ensemble towards the Schlossplatz untouched.