Project Overview

The James Simon Galerie is a new visitor centre between the reconstructed Neues Museum and the Kupfergraben arm of the Spree river on Museum Island, in Berlin.

Project Commissioner

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Project Creator

David Chipperfield Architects

Project Brief

As a continuation of Friedrich August Stüler’s forum architecture, the James Simon Galerie serves as the new entrance building for Museum Island, completing the ensemble between the Kupfergraben canal and the south-west façade of the Neues Museum.

Together with the ‘Archaeological Promenade’, it forms the backbone of
the masterplan that was developed in 1999 and adopted as the basis for all further planning on Museum Island. The building is sited on a narrow strip of land where Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s ‘Neuer Packhof’ administration building stood until 1938.

The architectural language of the James Simon Galerie adopts existing elements of the Museum Island, primarily from the external architecture, such as built topography, colonnades and outdoor staircases, making reference to Schinkel, Stüler and the other architects involved in the creation of Museum Island. The materiality of the building in reconstituted stone with natural stone aggregate blends in with the rich material palette of the Museum Island with its limestone, sandstone
and rendered façades, while smooth in-situ concrete dominates the interior spaces.

The entrance building is named after one of the city’s most important patrons, James Simon, who bequeathed his art collections and excavation findings to the Berlin State Museums at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Project Innovation/Need

Three flights of wide steps, set between the elongated plinth and the lower colonnade, invite visitors into the building. Arriving at the upper level, visitors enter a generous foyer, with direct level access to the main exhibition floor of the Pergamon Museum.

The foyer also encloses the cafeteria and opens out onto a grand terrace that runs the full length of the building. A mezzanine floor beneath the main entrance foyer accommodates the museum shop, a large cloakroom, toilet facilities and lockers, while the temporary exhibition spaces and an auditorium are situated in the basement level.

Large parts of this principal level will be accessible to the public outside opening hours, further extending the public realm of the Museum Island.