KOLUMBA MUSEUM

COLOGNE, GERMANY
“For me, architecture is not primarily about form, not at all.”
- Peter Zumthor

Along with an art museum, the Kolumba was intended to be an ode to peace and life; in
Latin, Columba means “dove”, a traditional Christian symbol of peace.
The massive fortress-like museum forms a fragmented shell, around a peaceful garden.
Externally, the building is characterized by its massiveness, a simple and severe
composition of warm-coloured volumes and thus integrates both to its urban context as well
as the historic site where is located.
It does not fixate the meaning of the archaeological traces, rather it allows the visitors to
emotionally and intellectually reconstruct the lost entity in their imagination and feel like
archaeologists who are discovering the historic fabric under various layers of the past. In
Peter Zumthor’s hands, history is not a commodity to be consumed, nor an image to be
looked at from a distance, but an open process that can be individually experienced.
It appears as if the several layers of history were reconciled literally from its base as one
moves towards the upper floors. Starting with the ruins of medieval church that was
destroyed during World War II followed by the small chapel to house a statue of the Virgin
that had miraculously survived amid the destruction and the two floors of exhibition space
above it all.
Destruction and construction became inseparably intertwined as one walks along the zigzag
pathway through the archaeological excavations of crypts, vaults and foundations. This
allows the visitors to experience the sites from up close, but at the same time reducing the
impact on heritage.
The change in luminance between the museum’s bright foyer and the mysterious twilight
over the ruins in the great space is dramatic. The protective shell has now turned into a band
of porous lacy brickwork that makes the outside so strange, which allows the visitors inside
to partially experience the street noise, the exterior temperature, and daylight; Zumthor is
trying to involve senses other than sight and touch. The sixteen exhibition rooms of the
Kolumba are dim-lighted, almost private, grey spaces with polished concrete floors,
conceived to underline the exposed artworks, and providing a general sensation of quietness
and timeless permanence. The last floor however follows a different story, it has large
windows that float past the floors and ceilings with tall shaft-like galleries with light entering
from high level windows creates powerful spaces – they flow and sweep and begin to tie the
interior firmly back into the city. It is as if the dim light of the first floor was only a kind of gap,
a meditation on the darkness and the ruins after which you are allowed into the light. The
building also opens its views to some courts designed in a serene Zen minimalism.
The rough concrete finish, white limestone flooring, red wooden pathway, old roman style
bricks, the brown leather curtain at the entrance and the hand sown silk curtains; all these
varied materials expresses the age, story, and essence of the site and creates a sense of
simplicity and contrast.
The building shows clearly than almost any other contemporary building the continuity of
Christian faith, but artistically, it transcends any religion and sends a remarkable message of
acceptance, moving on and hope.

NAME: Shankari Nagaraj

USN: 1AA15AT055
CLASS: 8th Semester “A”
SUBJECT: Adaptive Reuse