The Renovation of Neues Museum Sample Paper.

The Neues Museum is considered among the greatest museums around the world for its wonderful collection and obvious attraction. It is also referred to as the new Museum. From the face of it, the museum appears an epoch-busting construction holding a focused echo to our own age all of which heightens plus defines people’s cultural plus critical beliefs. Originally
constructed by F. A. Stuler between 1841 and 1859, Neues Museum is located on Museum Island around the region occupying former East Berlin. It was initially built to enlarge the area of
the Altes or Old Museum – constructed directly to the South by K. F. Schinkel (Stueler’s
teacher) and in existence since 1830. From the onset, the design had built part of a general
architectural impression brought about by F. Wilhelm IV as a series of art plus archeological
museums styled to endorse a greater approval of classical antiquity. Among the museums – as far
as construction plus rick interior decoration is concerned – the Neues Museum was seen as the
most significant vast Prussian building of the era.Body
The long-established location of museums in this area (Berlin) lies on the northern part of
Museum Island – recently acknowledged by UNESCO as a global cultural heritage site. The Renovation of Neues Museum Sample Paper.

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Nevertheless, approximately 70 percent of the construction in this area was destroyed during the Second World War meaning that major construction work was necessary to repair plus refurbish
the museums. Virtually destroyed during the Second World War, the Neues Museum has been
under what can be described as reconstruction since 1986 (Bekker 45). Worth noting is that even
though the museums were destroyed during the war, certain interiors survived almost wholly
with elaborate finishes and other collections. It follows that the restoration of this museum
adhered to the principle of maintenance rather than reconstruction. Serious deliberation was
made on the manner in which to restore the museum and an international competition for this
process was won by D. Chipperfield Architects with J. Harrap in 1997. As the 3 rd restrored
structure in the Museum Island, construction work started in 2003 and would take about 6 years
to complete. Chipperfield worked with the new building and Harrap restored the old sturucture
on the other hand (European Commission Culture Programme 2011). This phase marked a
different dimension as far as restructuration of the museum is concerned. The major aim of this
project revolved around recompleting the original volume as well as encompassing the repair
plus restoration of the parts that survived the war. Indeed, the guiding principles constituting the
Charter of Venice were followed throughout the process of restoration. This means that the
historical structure had to be respected in its various stages of preservation. For instance, the
existing but ruined surface texture plus composition was considered at the time of preservation.
In addition, the novel sequence of rooms was renovated with new building parts that generate
continuity with the existing building. It means that all the spaces in the existing building were
filled in without necessarily competing with the earlier structure as far as brightness and surface
if concerned. All in all, Chipperfield’s work of restoring plus renovating the existing part of the
Neues Museum seems driven by the notion that the original building should be highlighted in its
spatial context plus original materiality.

The new structure by Chipperfield reflects the old or lost without imitating it. Indeed, the
new rooms for exhibition are constructed of large prefabricated concrete parts comprising of
white cement together with marble chips (Etherington 2009). Created out of the same concrete
parts, the new central staircase repeats the innovative form without replicating it plus sits within
the majestic lobby that is renovated only as a block volume without its original decoration. The
new volumes including the Northwest wing and the South Dome are created of recycled hand-
made bricks thus complementing the preserved parts. With the reinstatement plus completion of
the vastly preserved row of pillars at the eastern plus southern part of the structure, the pre-war
urban condition is reestablished to the East. Altogether, the meticulous procedure of repair plus
restoration performed on the ruined structure makes clear the procedure of careful and informed
judgments balancing the status of the constituent piece with the visualization or the whole. It can
be said that the original plus the repair, the renovation plus the intervention are blended into a
singular whole. Worth noting is that the debate over attitudes to the level of restoration as well as
the manipulation of the surviving parts of the ruin represent an essential element of the
architect’s tasks. The form of the structure was suitably complete to demand the reestablishment
of the courtyards to south and north of the central Treppenhalle. Some new parts of the building
could offer support to the existing galleries both structurally plus from the servicing viewpoint.
Nonetheless, to create an attitude towards the surviving innovative material the temporary
structural interferences in red brick were eliminated and the original brickwork was stitched
together utilizing reclaimed plus recycled material from elsewhere in the island. As well, the
presentation of the new rooms was integrated through the use of reclaimed stonework facing. In
addition, the existing surfaces of render were joined back to their substrate following cleaning plus repair. On the other hand, the supporting parts of substrate masonry were slurred to offer a
consistent color support to the existing material while avoiding the temptation of covering the
brick substrate. Fresh raw brickwork indents plus cast terracotta were included into the broken
classical moldings around the doors, windows and cornices to provide the eye continuity within
the recognized geometry of classical structures. Also, figurative monument of cast zinc was
repeated where the iconographic succession was deemed inconsequential. On the whole, the
great structure were renovated in the means of the old-fashioned with minimal new work to
preserve the history of damage to which the museum has been subjected.
Chipperfield’s task was to come up with strategies plus techniques that addressed
renovation at various scales but had a steadiness of approach. It can be said that the dynamic
correspondence throughout the process of restructuration was amazing because Stuler and
Schinkel’s work were constant companions as Chipperfield worked on the ruin. According to
European Heritage Association (2014) the initial task of renovating the museum involved
bridging the divide between the great customs associated with Beaux Arts reconstruction –as
accomplished so clearly and with confidence in Potsdam – and the rather pragmatic Anglo-
Saxon approach. The philosophy contributed to the institution of SPAB (Society for the
Protection of Ancient Buildings) based on the supposition that the remains of a structure had
greater connotation in recording its journey via time than its reproduction in a supposedly correct
way. Nevertheless, with great patience and confidence a group was created to develop a
vocabulary of German and English phrases dealing with the conceptions of repair, renovation
and intervention of the museum. All components of the renovation process to be undertaken
were subject to meticulous analysis and debate offering a reference manuscript which served
throughout the duration of recreation. In addition, Chipperfield’s strategies had to be explicit in association to individual resources, works of art plus the issues of intervention emerging from
the occupation the structure. Without a doubt, it would have been simple to consider the structure
on its own and downplay the needs of the end user. For instance, a strategy created in this debate
was the mechanism to the surviving exterior render. Majority would be distressed by a
mechanism which left considerable sections of the rendered surface of the outer envelope un-
rendered yet treated with silicate and lime-based washes to suppress the color of the substrate
substance whilst diminishing the unintentional line of damage surrounding the plates of render.
For this reason, Chipperfield cleaned plus consolidated back all the existing rendered surfaces to
their substrate. In accomplishing this, the masonry was repaired using second-hand salvaged
blocks consistent with the original. Also, old pointing was massively retained and supplemented
with corresponding mixes in which natural elements (wind and water) had affected it (Nys &
Reichert 42-49). The red color of the blocks was repressed to harmonize the color with the
existing render to make the classical structure appear complete from a distance. Another element
which functioned to describe the intellectual framework for the structure’s repair plus renovation
was concerned with developing a series of guiding principles for individual rooms or spaces
within the building. On the one hand, some were quite desolate plus fragmentary that they
provoked new work altogether. On the other hand, some were a compound mixture of surviving
mid-nineteenth era decorative designs almost wholly obliterated finished plus decorated surfaces. The Renovation of Neues Museum Sample Paper.

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Chipperfield’s course of action leant on the geometry of a structural bay width of the gallery to
try to develop a series of stepped planes of repair and restoration where the existing material
needed contextual support to offer it significance. The unifying part in each gallery was
constantly the floor plate extending from one end to the other. At this stage, the demands of a
million visitors annually necessitated a level of consolidation past the confines of the intellectual preservation framework established for walls, ceilings plus columns. All in all, the basic
manuscripts served Chipperfield’s project rightly and as the design evolved were continually
called upon as reference from which the in depth strategies for renovation were developed.
According to European Heritage Association (2014), to bring richness plus personality to the
execution of the process each of the galleries was awarded to various companies of conservation
suppliers to avert the imposition of a practitioner’s style to similar resources throughout the
museum or structure. The invigilation of the procedure of renovation was carried out by a
conservation architect visiting on a regular basis to assess the process prior full implementation.
As evidenced above, Chipperfield’s idea was to hold on to the spirit of the debris he
found. This appears a paradoxical operation because of the need to preserve the nature of decay
in the fixed condition that museums require. As revealed, Chipperfield does so room by room
plus surface by surface while responding to the diverse settings found in each. Towards one end of the variety emerges fabric found virtually intact and at the other are new spaces. In between
there exists spaces defined via remains of plaster plus mausoleums of hollow clay pots represent
true beauty (Moore 2009). Nevertheless, in these spaces Chipperfield had to judge how and when
the new work announced its newness as well as when to blend with the found including the clay
pots made to go side by side the originals. The judgment included an approval of the context plus
function of each room or space – thus the staircase which follows the form and not the detail of
that which it reinstated. The Renovation of Neues Museum Sample Paper. Such an approach represents an impressive professional achievement and
the museum generates echoes of different degrees of time including the duration of its original
construction as revealed through the fractional stripping of surfaces, its subsequent use and
bombing and finally its restoration. Chipperfield’s key aim of the project by recompleting the
original volume plus encompassing the repair as well as restoration had been realized by 2009 when the renovation was completed. This was after more than 6 decades in the ruins and the
museum re-opened to the public exhibiting the assortments of the Egyptian Museum as well as
the Museum of pre-history. As Chipperfield summed up the work, the handing over of the
structure represented a significant duration in the practice of bringing what was annihilated
during World War II back into the community life of the area (Etherington 2009). Ultimately,
people were in a position to see the outcomes of years of planning plus intense collaboration with
various stakeholders.

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In conclusion, there is a clear appeal to Chipperfield’s work. In modern times when
people have become stuffed with the glitzy object, rhetoric of newness plus the icon, and the
spectacular form, Chipperfiled’s work shows patience all of which lead to great detail. He not
only managed to reestablish form and figure bust also use plainer forms throughout the process
to fuse with Harrap’s exquisite conservation work. Striking is Chipperfield’s determination to
pursue the indefinable over the years –through the politics plus pressures of a project- without
losing its essence. The Renovation of Neues Museum Sample Paper. In most cases, architects subjugate these pressures with the pursuit of a dominant style. Architecturally, Chipperfield was able to create a masterpiece and the Neus Museum represents a special case in which craftsmanship moves beyond the common. The
elements of his technique are the making of rooms or spaces, the appreciation what survived as
well as an outlook of the architect’s effort as a series of actions that interconnect with the ones
made previously and those of the future. Following Chipperfield’s work, Neues Museum
becomes a strong plus distinctive inspiration about a place made real. Thus, it should not be
viewed as a pioneer of a new modesty or the opposite of the things encompassing modern
architecture for that matter. Rather, persons should look into its specialty including the fluidity as
well as the replies to things external to the architect’s brain. Finally, the painstaking process of restructuring the Neues Museum mirrored the architect’s strength of purpose leading to a
magnificent structure. Indeed, the great renovation won the museum the 2011 Mies van der Rohe
Award. The Renovation of Neues Museum Sample Paper.