Richard Wagner Museum
Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2017.
An extension of considerable size was to improve the exhibition possibilities at the site where Richard Wagner lived and worked. The low building is positioned on a plot of land purchased in 1930 on the edge of the historic garden, strengthening the original arrangement of formal driveway, forecourt, villa and garden. Its long glazed façade and reduced design make it a quiet observer of the auratic setting. Parts of the spatial program were placed underground in order to keep the estate’s balance.
Creating a new building with a greater floor area than the existing buildings on the site where Richard Wagner lived and worked required a firm sense of what would be appropriate in this situation.
The challenge was to retain the freestanding character of the Villa Wahnfried on the clearly structured estate with a formal driveway, forecourt and private garden, but still letting the intervention appear in a sensible manner.
An added strip of land on the west side of the historic garden, purchased in 1930, became the key to our concept. The extension’s placement along the initial site boundary revives the original proportion and appearance of the garden.The new building and the gardeners house on the west side of the property echoe the Siegfried-Wagner-Haus on the opposite side, while the storage, the event-space and further exhibition spaces are placed underground.
This arrangement and the removal of a connecting building which blurred the villa restored the historic symmetry of the estate and made the extension with its long glazed façade and reduced design a quiet observer of the auratic setting.
