Quadrat

The Quadrat museum complex is located on the edge of Bottrop's town centre. The ensemble consists of several buildings housing the local history museum and the Josef Albers Museum, which has been extended several times and houses the important collection of the Bottrop-born artist Josef Albers.

The existing museum of local history in a villa building over a hundred years old was extended in 1976 by the architect and Bottrop building director Bernhard Küppers with three cubes of equal size with an edge length of 21 metres. The square floor plans refer to Josef Albers' well-known series of paintings "Homage to the Square". The two-storey new buildings with their flat, strictly geometric exterior structure contrast with the brickwork of the existing building, to which they are connected via a corridor.

The cubes, built as a steel structure, are largely open to the outside thanks to large glass surfaces. Inside, too, the rooms are not closed off from each other, but open up to constantly new views. Visitors enter the ensemble via the central media room.

The donation of over 300 Albers works by his widow in 1979 made an extension necessary. This was again designed by Bernhard Küppers on a square floor plan and opened in 1983.

The latest extension by Annette Gigon / Mike Guyer Architekten, the "Josef Albers Gallery", which opened in 2022, is a monolithic building with space for special exhibitions.

Awards:
Museum des Jahres 2006, Auszeichnung
Architekturpreis Vest Recklinghausen Gelsenkirchen 2023 (BDA), Auszeichnung
Architekturpreis NRW 2024 (BDA NRW), Auszeichnung

Author: Editorial baukunst-nrw
Last changed on 12.09.2024

Categories:
Architecture » Public Buildings » Cultural (cinemas, theatres, museums)