Moritzburg Museum expansion – Nieto Sobejano Architects

The old Castle of Moritzburg in Halle, is a very valuable example of Gothic military architecture feature in Germany at the end of the fifteenth century. Its troubled history has inevitably been reflected in the very different interventions over the years have been changing. Despite the many changes that took place, the building has remained until today the formal structure of its main original architectural elements: the wall-enclosure perimeter, three of the four circular towers at the corners and the central courtyard.

The partial collapse of the north and west wings that occurred during the seventeenth century the Thirty Years War, linked for centuries the castle to the romantic image of the ruin as it has come to today. With the exception of a project not done by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in 1828, it was not until now that has been raised to carry out a comprehensive intervention to transform and expand the ancient ruin on the Art Museum housed there since 1904.

A very remarkable collection of modern art, mainly of German Expressionism, which includes works Lyonel Feininger painted the city of Halle, will now be expanded with the donation Gerlinger, one of the most valuable private collections devoted to expressionist group Die Brücke

Our proposed expansion is based on a single, clear idea of ??architecture. This is a new roof, designed as a platform folded up and bankruptcy is to allow the passage of natural light, and from which hang the new exhibition. As a result of this operation, the plant is completely free of the old ruin, which allows a single space capable of supporting various exhibition opportunities. This solution is complemented by the construction of two new vertical communication cores. The first is located in the north wing solving the connection of different levels should communicate. Moreover, a new contemporary tower, 25 meters high at a location that once held the stronghold disappeared, is a core access to the new exhibition space that overlooks the distant views of the city.

The new landscape of roofs and metal tower in talks with irregular angular geometry of the high volumes covered already in the castle. As those disturbing and expressive forms Feininger painted, which exposes the Museum, the new fragments are added to the continuous process of transformation that has characterized the history of the Castle of Moritzburg in time.