Museum Moderner Kunst

Frankfurt am Main | Germany

Type: museums/cultural buildings
Client: Stadt Frankfurt am Main
Planning: 1982 - 1983      Completion: 1991

A program similar in size and scope to Mönchengladbach, the Frankfurt Museum for Modern Art is also in the historic heart of the city and determined by its compact, triangular site. Again it houses contemporary art, with a certain emphasis on permanent installations–partly specifically done for the Museum. The symmetry of the site –and the building–is overlaid by a diagonally asymmetrical path through the building, which consists of mainly three floors, one with a central top–lit hall and a top–floor with skylights. While the program for the central hall called for a variety of uses, the specific spaces for the art and artists are reduced to the essential. The outside building block had to keep a given cornice–height and integrates itself in the urban fabric in terms of materials and continuation of existing street–arcades. On top is a premeditated roofscape of skylights and spaces for mechanical equipment. As any public building in Frankfurt, this one is also made of red sandstone and stucco, also for reasons of economy.