The Neues Museum on Museum Island finally reopened in 2009 after being closed for over 70 years following World War II bomb damage, and a whopping €233 million restoration project by British architect David Chipperfield. Chipperfield has delicately reconstructed the museum rooms, leaving the existing flaking paintwork and washed-out murals to speak for themselves. A grand new staircase occupies the main hall and is given a modern look with the use of pre-cast concrete, while also blending in with the original brick and stone. There are now beautiful heavy bronze doors and latticed wooden radiator covers in the gallery rooms, as well as a new glass roof in the atrium and circular rooflights in the smaller galleries. The essence of Friedrich August Stuler’s original design is still there, Chipperfield has just let it come to life again.
Images my own
