Stuttgart-based architecture practice Bez+Kock Architekten has used a bridge-like passageway to extend a historic museum in Arnsberg, Germany. 

Called Museum and Cultural Forum Arnsberg, the 3,533-square-metre travertine-clad building emerged as an extension of The Sauerland-Museum, located in the historically listed - named "Landsberger Hof". The new extension of the building is now named as Museum and Cultural Forum South Westphalia.

The existing historical building was built in 1605 and was extensively renovated as a first construction phase and the permanent exhibition was redesigned. Phase two comprised an extension building, located on the directly adjacent, 45-degree sloped lot which leads down to Ruhrstrasse and the Ruhr River. 

The architects tried to create a unity and harmony with the existing building and the new extension. Smooth transition between old and new can be perceived in a fluid sequence. 

This new sculptural construction, whose ground floor lies nearly 20 meters below the entrance level of the prestigious existing building, now enables the museum to house top-level temporary exhibitions of interregional stature.

"At the client’s request, the award-winning competition project of the year 2012, with its underground connection between the existing and new construction, had to be completely redesigned," said the office. 

"The new design of the museum building is stepped like a grandstand from North to South in three stages: From the level of the first basement of the existing building down to the Ruhrstrasse, where the main building mass with the great exhibition hall is located." 

"On the way down through the white stairwell to the Ruhrstrasse the volume increases itself storey-wise, from the upper level with the start of the exhibition to the mezzanine level multi purpose hall down to the grand exhibition hall," the architects added.

The existing building connects to the extension by means of a bridge-like docking structure from the first basement of "Landsberger Hof", accentuating this passage with three diagonally cut window openings towards Brückenplatz. 

The path leads straight to a full height, panoramic window, which opens up - from a height of 15 meters - an impressive view of the city. The "English Promenade", an existing historical footpath on the hill below Landsberger Hof, was preserved and now passes under the connecting bridge of the two building structures to a public panoramic terrace on the lower roof of the museum.

The striking, staggered new building also serves as a mediating component of the city between “Old Market” in the West and the significantly lower Ruhrstrasse in the East. By adopting the two main angles of Landsberger Hof and Ruhrstrasse, the new construction blends in naturally in its built environment. 

At the same time, Landsberger Hof as a historically important palace on the city wall remains dominant in the silhouette of the old town of Arnsberg. 

The homogeniously clad façade with travertine from Gauingen in Southern Germany emphasizes the sculpturality of the new museum. Carefully incised, three dimensional window openings create an exciting relationship from the interior to the exterior space.

Fourth basement level plan

Third basement level plan

Second basement level plan

Basement level plan

Ground floor plan

Site plan

Section-1

Section-2

Project facts

Client: Hochsauerlandkreis, represented by Landrat Karl Schneider
Architects: Bez + Kock Architekten Generalplaner, Stuttgart Martin Bez, Thorsten Kock
Competition team: Tilman Rösch, Lisa Diez
Project team: Meredith Atkinson, Lea Keim, Antonia Hauser, Anna Piontek, Maria Dallinger, Roman Ramminger, Andrea Stegmaier
Local construction management: BBM Bodem Baumanagement
Structural engineering: wh-p Ingenieure
Electrical planning: GBI Gackstatter Beratende Ingenieure
Building services engineering: Henne & Walter Ingenieurbüro für technische Gebäudesysteme
Building physics: Wolfgang Sorge Ingenieurbüro für Bauphysik,
Project and exhibition concept: Dr. Ulrich Hermanns Ausstellung Medien Transfer
Landscape design: Wiederkehr Landschaftsarchitekten

All images © Brigida González

All drawings © Bez+Kock Architekten

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