arfeb05_hascherjehledone

8/3/05

11:49 am

Page 50

Stuttgarts Kleine Schlossplatz (Small Palace

Square) was built in 1968, in an age when
motorist freedom was the dogma of urban
planning. It is situated diagonally across from the
Neues Schloss, one of Germanys largest
Baroque palaces. Barren and uninviting, the
square was never much more than a large raised
concrete platform covering a motorway
crossing and tram lines, and had been a
depressing public and political eyesore for more
than a quarter of a century.
During the 1980s, an investor-led
competition put forward an urban design
masterplan by I. M. Pei, but the local community
did not vote in its favour. In 1993, Behnisch &
Behnisch alleviated some of the grimness by
introducing a generous flight of steps which won
public acclaim. But the real breakthrough came
in 1998 when the City of Stuttgart held an
international design competition based on a
mixed cultural and commercial use of the site. A
staggering number of 431 architects submitted
their proposals. Ultimately, Stuttgart-born (but

now Berlin-based) architects Rainer Hascher

and Sebastian Jehle won with a design that
clearly separates the new art museum from any
speculative commercial development.
Today the rectilinear mixed-use office and
retail building plays a secondary role compared
with the glass-clad Art Cube, which acts as a
striking landmark for the museum complex, a
major intervention that has succeeded in
miraculously revitalizing Stuttgarts city centre.
Nothing but Behnischs flight of steps remains as
a reminder of the old urban condition. Yet
Hascher Jehles crystalline landmark is only the
most visible part of the Museum more
exhibition spaces are housed in the former
subterranean traffic tunnels as the architects
skilfully and imaginatively utilize the remnants of
the old infrastructure.
The building lies on Knigsstrasse, the main
pedestrian zone, next to the imposing NeoClassical arcades of the old Stock Exchange and
opposite the Neues Schloss. The galleries at
lower ground level occupy a 115m long section

location plan

1
The new Art Cube takes its place in the
urban matrix of Stuttgarts Kleine
Schlossplatz, helping to revive a
formerly depressing piazza.
2
The crisply detailed glass-clad cube sits
above subterranean galleries.

URBAN CUBISM
Signposted by a glass cube, this museum complex revives a Stuttgart square.

A RT MUSEUM , S TUTTGART ,
G ERMANY
ARCHITECT
H ASCHER J EHLE

50 | 2

arfeb05_hascherjehledone

8/3/05

11:49 am

Page 52

A RT MUSEUM , S TUTTGART ,
G ERMANY
ARCHITECT
H ASCHER J EHLE

6
3
1

first floor

2
5

2
1

4
1

8
1

fourth floor

ground floor plan (scale approx 1:1250)

2
2

1
1

lower ground floor

3
The prospect from the top floor,
due to be fitted out as a
restaurant. The Neues Schloss is
across the square to the left.
4
Entrance hall.
5
Circulation zone between the
inner stone clad cube and outer
glass skin.

52 | 2

long section

3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

exhibition spaces
archives
entrance hall
book shop
cloakroom
seminar room
shop units
lecture hall

53 | 10

arfeb05_hascherjehledone

8/3/05

11:49 am

Page 54

of the old tram tunnel, directly under the Kleine

Schlossplatz. As you enter the museum from
Knigsstrasse, the generously glazed 450sqm
foyer is flooded with daylight, its separate shop
and espresso bar bearing no trace of what was
once the entrance to an infrastructural Hades.
Exhibition spaces begin on the ground floor,
behind a group of multifunctional rooms, and
continue 60m down underground. You can peer
into the open circulation area of the lower
ground level directly below. Daylight filters
through window strips high above, in the
pavement of the Kleine Schlossplatz, helping to
dispel any feelings of claustrophobia in the long
corridors with their neutral whitewashed
exhibition spaces. Nothing disturbs these calm,
silent caverns of art, not even the noise and
vibration of the 50 000 vehicles that rumble daily
through the tunnels on both sides.
The 1100sqm gallery space above ground is
accessed by a steel staircase that climbs up
between the smooth outer glass facade and the
inner reinforced-concrete cube, clad externally
with rough limestone. The upward journey is an
object lesson in how to hang a glass facade from
the top while minimizing any obtrusive
structural elements. Engineer Werner Sobek
has performed a miracle of transparency, using

54 | 2

giant glass panels measuring 4.10m x 2.50m, the

largest possible in Germany. Each side of the
cube has 56 panels and the homogeneous
impression is further enhanced by the use of a
smooth metal seal ensuring a continuous outer
surface, so that viewed from an angle, the sheets
of glass appear seamless. On the inside, 600mm
thick vertical glass blades strengthen the facade
against wind pressure. However, a degree of
transparency had to be sacrificed for the sake of
solar protection. Imprinted white horizontal
lines (like blinds) on the outer glass filter the
suns intensity. So only 24 per cent of solar
energy penetrates the interior, with triple glazed
and argon-filled glass panes effectively dispelling
most of the heat.
Given the nature of the building with its
precious works of art, it is imperative to
maintain constant temperature and humidity.
Inside the gallery spaces, 50 to 60 per cent of the
heat gain is neutralized by cooling in the
concrete ceilings. The remaining heat load is
handled by conventional air conditioning which
maintains an average temperature of 20 deg C
and a humidity of around 50 per cent. Taking all
these energy protection and saving measures
into account, the Art Cube undercuts current
German energy conservation rules by over a

quarter a highly respectable achievement for a

construction that to all intents and purposes
resembles a heat trap.
The crowning achievement of the glass cube is
the restaurant on top of the three gallery floors.
Were it not for the 114 moveable multifunctional louvres integrated within the glass
roof as a combined shading, cooling and heating
device, guests would be sitting right under the
open sky. This fifth level restaurant floor offers
the most spectacular panoramic views of the
Stuttgart skyline. Kleine Schlossplatz has found a
new home, 21m above the old one, but
Stuttgarts new social gathering space is an
impressive and civilized change from its grim late
60s predecessor. CHRISTIAN BRENSING

A RT MUSEUM , S TUTTGART ,
G ERMANY
ARCHITECT
H ASCHER J EHLE

Architect
Hascher Jehle Architektur, Berlin
Structrual engineer
Werner Sobek, Fichtner Bauconsulting
Facade
Ingenieurbro Brecht
Photographs
Roland Halbe

6
The modern Piranesian depths of the
subterranean gallery spaces.
7
Looking down to the lower galleries.