Archilectures | Stefan Vieths. Three Museums

The lesson presents three museums: the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin, the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf and the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne. They represent three composite forms of different character – an archaeological museum, an exhibition hall and a gallery of classical painting – which, despite the differences in typology, have in common the objective of constructing an urban place with a specific and recognizable identity. These are projects that, by applying the strategy of assemblage, aim to complete the urban form – understood as a built form, as a complex composition of spaces and architectural volumes. A particular role in these projects is played by the fragment, the objet trouvé. The contradiction and discontinuity of the morphological context in today’s city are conceived not as obstacles to be ignored or erased but as resources. In this logic, the fragment introduces into the project the dimension of history, memory and chance, thus allowing a complex and significant interpretation of the place and its formation and transformation over time.

Graduated in Architecture from the Technical University of Braunschweig in 1989.
Master’s degree from Syracuse University School of Architecture, Syracuse (New York State) 1991.
Registered Architect Niedersachsen (Germany) 1992.
1991-2012 architect at the studio of Oswald Mathias Ungers in Cologne. Co-author of numerous projects and built works. In this capacity he is responsible for the design of various realised projects, including the Basler Versicherung offices in Cologne, the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne and the renovation and extension of the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin (in progress).
The design work at the Ungers studio has fuelled a path of theoretical research that has resulted in several publications, in particular “La città dialettica” (O.M. Ungers, S. Vieths, 1997) and “Forme Composite” (S. Vieths, 2012).
2012-Today Visiting of Architectural and Urban Composition at Politecnico di Milano.
2018 Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale, II. Fascia (National Scientific Qualification).
Recent publications: “O.M. Ungers: Progetti programmatici” (2019), “Das grüne Berlin: Città.Giardino.Città” (2018), “Il riassetto della Spreeinsel e il nuovo Pergamonmuseum di Berlino” (2018).