COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

20 YEARS GRONINGER MUSEUM

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU

A publication on the occassion of the 20th anniversary of the Groninger Museum in Groningen, The Netherlands.

© COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, 2014

20 YEARS GRONINGER MUSEUM

”Who marries the Zeitgeist will soon be a widow“ the press nagged at the opening of the Groninger Museum in 1994. But the marriage still is a great success and the once attacked former director Frans Haks, who commissioned the building in the late 80s, is called a visionary now.

The overall design of the museum complex was done by Alessandro Mendini, Milano, who invited three guest architects: Coop Himmelb(l)au, Philippe Stark and Michele De Lucchi. Coop Himmelb(l)au designed the East Pavilion of the museum. ”It was as if a bomb had exploded“, said one city resident when the design was published.

”Groningen is a key work for Coop Himmelb(l)au because there we were first able to realise on a large scale our conception of a space which exploded the prison of the functionalistic box into a thousand pieces“, says Wolf D. Prix. It was in 1985/86 when Prix had heard about a so called space arm. A movie studio in LA digitized the head of Nofretete with this tool to rebuild it for a film. Frank O. Gehry introduced Prix to the scientists and he immediately recognized: This is the next step in architecture. Prix bought the space arm and started to digitize the model of the Groninger Museum, meaning translating the real 3D model into plans. ”This idea has liberated us from former bondage and allowed an until then unkown latitude in designing fantastic forms, spaces and structures“, Prix still is excited.

The whole pavilion is a three–dimensional artwork, resting on the pedestal formed by the Mendini volume clad. The design aims to generate ’open architecture‘, an interaction between inside and out, which surprises the visitor by sudden glimpses of the outside world. The walls are made of steel and glass to enable daylight to enter at unexpected places. Paths at different levels allow to view the artworks from all sides: at ground level or from the gantry that cuts through the exhibition area a few metres above the floor. The structure is comprised of large, double–walled steel plates, filled with hardened glass at the points where they do not quite meet. The first sketch of the design was enlarged digitally to the actual scale of the building and painted on the steel plates as a layer of tar.

”One has to imagine that it will take 100 years for the steel plates to rust away, but since the drawing is done in tar it will not rust. After 100 years it will be the Museum that is gone and only the sketch that remains,“ explains Wolf D. Prix. “Many of the techniques that we use originate from art, such as the adherence to the first sketch and automatic drawing.”

”STILL VERY GOOD ALIVE“

“IF YOU WANT TO BUILD A SHIP DON‘T DRUM UP MEN TO GATHER WOOD AND TO DISTRIBUTE THE WORK, BUT TEACH THEM THE LONGING FOR THE WIDE OPEN SEA.“

Antoine de Saint–Exupéry

”CONGRATULATIONS TO GRONINGEN AND THE PEOPLE IN POWER FOR THEIR COURAGE TO BUILD THIS BUILDING IN THE WAY IT GOT BUILT.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!“

Wolf D. Prix, 2014

ONE HAS TO IMAGINE THAT IT WILL TAKE 100 YEARS FOR THE STEEL PLATES TO RUST AWAY, BUT SINCE THE DRAWING IS DONE IN TAR IT WILL NOT RUST. AFTER 100 YEARS IT WILL BE THE MUSEUM THAT IS GONE AND ONLY THE SKETCH THAT REMAINS.

ONE HAS TO IMAGINE THAT IT WILL TAKE 100 YEARS FOR THE STEEL PLATES TO RUST AWAY, BUT SINCE THE DRAWING IS DONE IN TAR IT WILL NOT RUST. AFTER 100 YEARS IT WILL BE THE MUSEUM THAT IS GONE AND ONLY THE SKETCH THAT REMAINS.

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