Foreword by Àlvaro Siza. Introduction by David Chipperfield. Essays by Kenneth Frampton Julian
Harrap Jonathan Keates Rik Nys Joseph Rykwert Karsten Schubert Peter Klaus Schuster and
Thomas Weski. Interview with David Chipperfield by Wolfgang Wolters. This book edited by David
Chipperfield documents his most important project to date: the Neues Museum the centrepiece
of the Berlin Museumsinsel. Here he connects the old and the new in a completely novel way. As
he says himself he proceeded like a painter who painstakingly considers every dab of paint.
Photographs by Candida Höfer show the rooms after their completion and before they were
furnished. As Höfer avoided using artificial light the rooms are bathed in a soft natural
light. These critical moments are perfectly reproduced in the book as matt colour plates. The
photographer is inspired by the empty rooms and grandiose corridors of space to then dedicate
her attention to the architect's interventions. This artistic-photographic documentation is
complimented by texts from wellknown architects architectural historians art historians and
conservation architects. They highlight the fundamental principles of the project of
conservation and complementation. Kenneth Frampton discusses the almost historical endeavour to
restore such a building and responds to Chipperfield's architectural interventions purely
abstract forms that avoid any trace of kitsch. Joseph Rykwert describes the fragmented history
'of which this building is evidence thanks to its manifold layers'. An interview with David
Chipperfield by Wolfgang Wolters imparts insights into the problems and questions that the
restoration posed and in his contribution Thomas Weski takes a closer look at Candida Höfer's
photography. In addition a chronology offers an overview of the history of the building the
request for proposals for its reconstruction and the restoration itself.
