External Form, Simulation in Topography

Fig. 32. Underground connection from each side Fig. 33. Sketch, improved public realm

Between the two museum complexes, Unterlinden Square has recovered its historical significance, recalling the times when, across from the convent, stables and farm buildings formed an ensemble known as the “Ackerhof”. The bus stop and parking lot existing prior to the museum’s renovation have now become a new public and urban space. The Sinn canal, which flows under Colmar’s old town, has been reopened, becoming the central element of this new public space. Close to the water, a small house marks the museum’s presence on the square: its positioning, volume and shape are those of the mill that once stood there. Two windows allow passersby to look downwards at the underground gallery connecting the two ensembles of buildings.23 After the extension, two building complexes, physically connected by an underground gallery, face each other across Unterlinden Square. The medieval convent consisting of a church, a cloister, a fountain and a garden stand to one side. On the other side of the square, the new museum building mirrors the church’s court.22

Fig. 38. La Maison lightwell into gallery

Fig. 34. Urban public space transformation

volume and, together with the former municipal baths constitutes a second, enclosed

22 ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily.com/782168/ musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) 23 ibid. Fig. 35. Previous street with bus stop Fig. 36. Opening up canal, new pedestrianised public space Fig. 37. Children playing in public space

Fig. 39. Canalside steps Fig. 40. Courtyard, attention to detail of material

Fig. 41. Previous little house building and gate leading to previous Ackerhof farm building The Ackerhof building has a copper slate sloping gable end of 11.5m,26 seamless in materiality from the roof, a unique geometric take on a Swiss pitched roof and reflects the proportions or volumes of the Dominican church standing opposite. Like the nearby roofscape surrounding the site, the form echoes in materiality and sloping form. Like the Schaudepot, the building is a minimalist façade, with only one lancet window and a ground floor lancet shaped entrance door from the courtyard. The large blank brick façade evokes a unique sense of place and history of the site, with its ominous presence on the site. The building is unique, highly executed in concept to built- form, a highly creative intervention as a response to the context, modern but seemingly traditional. The La Maison folly building has a copper sloping roof. The walls convex into the centre creating interest in the large windows with timber framing. It is a meeting point before going to the Ackerhof, but it is also a big skylight which allows light to flow into the below gallery which links across underground. It acts like a paver, where the visitor can see in and out of the museum. The gallery below is very carefully curated by art curator Jean Francois Chevrier.27 Ideas of simulation were explored by testing many variations in simple forms with a very strong potential, Jacques states, ‘not as a trademark but where it makes sense.’28 Rather than a Hollywood simulation the building form takes inspiration from but does copy a historic archetype. The new extension is based on conceptually simulating an architecture which previously stood on the site, but as ‘abstract monuments that can be located in space but not in ‘time’.24 The little house building is inspired by the small outlet building that stood in the same place that was the entrance gate that was the former Ackerhof that was a farm to support the convent. It forms a link between these two elements, breaking down the scale and periods of the buildings on each side. The practice took joy in reconceptualising a simulation of a setting, as Aldo Rossi states, ‘the idea of history as the structure of urban artefact is affirmed by the continuities that exist in the deepest layers of the urban structure, where certain fundamental characteristics

Fig. 42. Model of previous 13th century convent buildings which stood on the site

that are common to the entire urban dynamic can be seen.’25

24 Arquitectura Viva, Continuity and Invention, Herzog & de Meuron in Colmar, Madrid, London, 2016, p.19. 25 Rossi, A, The Architecture of the City, London, MIT Press, 1982, p.128. 26 ArchDaily, Musée Unterlinden / Herzog & de Meuron, 2016, <https://www.archdaily.com/782168/ musee-unterlinden-extension-herzog-and-de-meuron> (accessed 12.12.19) 27 Jacques Herzog ‘hardly finished work’, 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mgPQlrfJYYo&t=3473s> 28 ibid. Fig. 43. Sketch, view across from canal Fig. 44. View across from canal

Fig. 45. Ackerhof building with roofscape topography

Fig. 47. La Maison building, convent in background Fig. 46. Ackerhof building facade and lancet windows, creating timeless architecture

Fig. 48. La Maison building roof, directing walls to window