Berggruen Museum – Sculpture Garden
The Berggruen Museum has been housed in the so-called West Stüler Building opposite Berlin’s Charlottenburg Palace Since 1996. As part of the museum’s expansion into the adjacent Kommandantenhaus, a decision was made to create a sculpture garden in the courtyard located between the West Stüler Building, Kommandantenhaus, Bröhan Museum, and a former riding hall. The courtyard was originally a small parade ground, and its historical structure is still recognisable today due to two rows of mature lime trees that grow there.
The design for the sculpture garden incorporates the historical orientation of the open space and through its new structure binds the garden more firmly to the Berggruen Museum. The garden is divided into three zones from north to south. A planting area for perennials directly next to the museum creates a clear transition to the garden while maintaining the necessary transparency to the building. The centre of the garden is formed by a lawn area that is one step lower than the walkway surrounding it. The lawn creates an open centre and serves as the actual location for the sculptures. An existing linden tree and a slight degree of topographical undulation give the space the feeling of landscape, which is complemented by the space’s third zone, an adjacent area planted with shrubs. The plants’ free forms and staggered heights shield the garden from an adjacent courtyard to the south, and provide a fitting backdrop.
While the northern and southern edges of the garden are formed by vegetation, its eastern and western edges are each defined by wooden benches that run along the entire length of the central section of the garden. The western bench, with its high back, separates the garden from a parking lot just behind it, while the eastern bench, with its two tiers, overcomes the half-metre difference in elevation between the new garden and an adjacent courtyard. It also opens up this side of the garden to the Bröhan Museum. The corners of the garden are occupied and defined by four formal hornbeam hedge elements.
The garden is open to the public during daytime hours, and especially for visitors to the museum will serve as a third exhibition space that is visible from the new glass pergola connecting the buildings.
Completion: 2013
Area: 1.140 square meters
