CHRIST & GANTENBEIN
Christ & Gantenbein is an international architecture practice founded in 1998 by Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein. It is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with an outpost in Barcelona. The firm’s most prominent completed projects include the renovation and extension of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, a cultural landmark with a global reach, featured comprehensively in this publication, as well as the extension to the Kunstmuseum Basel. Upcoming completions include the extension to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, as well as the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA).
NO LOUD IMAGES
A discussion on the first phase of renovation of the Swiss National Museum held between the architects, the museum director and the heritage representative. It is part of the publication Renovation Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich1, the first book of a series of three published between 2011 and 2019 by the Swiss Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics.
1 Emanuel Christ, Christoph Gantenbein, Andreas Spillmann, Peter Baumgartner, “No Loud Images” in Renovation Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich. Bahnhofflügel, Edited by Hanspeter Winkler, Jenny Keller, Nadine Rinderer, Bern: Bundesamt für Bauten und Logistik BBL, 2011.
The first stage of refurbishing the Swiss National Museum in Zurich has been completed. Christ & Gantenbein have renovated the railway station wing and the south-west corner of the historicist-style museum designed by architect Gustav Gull that opened in 1898. The architects won the international competition to renovate and extend the museum in 2002. As well as measures to renovate structural, climatic and fire protection installations, the works also included returning some interiors to their original condition. In order to learn more about the architects’ approach to the renovation and to illustrate the teamwork that played such a crucial role, the main players have come together to discuss the refurbishment process. Joining the architects Emanuel Christ (EC) and Christoph Gantenbein (CG) in the discussion are the director of the National Museum, Andreas Spillmann (AS), and, representing Zurich’s cantonal office for the conservation of monuments, Peter Baumgartner (PB). Jenny Keller (JK), architectural journalist, leads the discussion.
The Role of the Image
JK: Roman Keller’s photographs, which are reproduced in the book as a photo essay, atmospherically document the refurbishment of the railway station wing and the south-west corner of the National Museum. At the same time, they bear witness to a very temporary state. The pictures play an important role because they show the refurbishment in a state which no longer exists – in the meantime the permanent exhibition has moved back into the museum. How do the pictures express the spirit or the atmosphere in the National Museum following refurbishment?
CG: The distinguishing feature of these pictures is that, at first glance, they don’t show the modifications at all. You have to be very familiar with the project to identify the new building work in the photos. It’s a result of having worked a great deal with photos during the design process. Every architectural query began with old photos from the archive. They are pictures of the original building around the time of construction or of modifications from the 1930s. Roman Keller’s photos are often closely related to the old ones. They demonstrate how our architectural strategy of combining old with new was not trying to emphasise the contrast between parts from different eras but rather to create a coherent architectural whole.
PB: We depend on such old pictures of the original condition of the building for conservation purposes as long as they can be dated accurately which, in this case, they could be. They show the original state of the building as well as the modifications which have been made in the meantime. Original features can also be gleaned from the building itself. A mural, for instance, which had been painted over several times, was eventually found and brought to light again. Pictures can help avoid unnecessary damage. From the building conservation point of view, it’s important to find out what’s worth restoring in any event, rather than using the pictures as the architects do, as a source of inspiration and a means of defining their new creation conceptually.
EC: Let’s talk about the significance of the image, about these tangible pictures by Roman Keller. Looking at them today, they really do represent an already historical state as they show that fleeting moment when the refurbishment was completed but the permanent exhibition was not yet reinstalled. And then we’ll talk about the historical pictures too, these old black-and-white photographs. As Peter Baumgartner has said, they guided the concept. To be honest, we interpreted the pictures, made speculations about them rather
PUBLICATION
COLLECTION
AMAG LONG BOOKS
VOLUME
LB 28
TITLE
CHRIST & GANTENBEIN
swiss national museum
ISBN 978-989-35767-7-9
PUBLICATION
DATE
December 2024
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND GENERAL MANAGER
Ana Leal
EDITORIAL TEAM
Ana Leal, architect
Filipa Figueiredo Ferreira, designer
João Soares, architect Ricardo Figueiredo, designer
PRINTING
Graficamares
LEGAL DEPOSIT 480255/21
RUN NUMBER
1000 numbered copies
PUBLISHER AND OWNER AMAG publisher
VAT NUMBER 513 818 367
CONTACTS
hello@amagpublisher.com www.amagpublisher.com
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LB 06 ANDRÉ CAMPOS | JOANA MENDES PEDRO GUEDES DE OLIVEIRA fábrica em barcelos
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LB 17 SO – IL amant
LB 18 AFF spore initiative
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LB 25 TOMOAKI UNO terabe guest house
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LB 27 LYNCH ARCHITECTS westminster coroner’s court
LB 28 CHRIST & GANTENBEIN swiss national museum is the twenty-eighth title from LONG BOOKS COLLECTION
AMAG LONG BOOKS COLLECTION brings together a unique selection of projects that establish new paradigms in architecture.
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