Architecture

A Modern Museum Building in a Historic Setting

Over 250 international firms entered the architectural design competition announced by the State Building Office in Regensburg. The architecture firm woerner traxler richter in Frankfurt won the competition to build the Museum of Bavarian History because of their effective approach to relating it to the city of Regensburg’s urban design.

Strolling through the Museum

The World Heritage Site of Regensburg with its cathedral downtown, its narrow streets and squares, its unique roofscape, and its location directly on the Danube dominate the museum’s design. It evolves from the particular site, integrates itself, and remains assertively independent. The foyer references the long-gone Hunnenplatz. The museum can be entered from the Danube Promenade to the north and from the old town to the south, thus linking the cityscape and the riverscape. An inside corridor to the large temporary exhibition in particular leads eastward from the foyer, evoking the Eschergasse of days past The foyer with the admissions desk, information desk, museum shop and inn is the museum’s main gathering point. Its panorama is additionally the multimedia introduction to the permanent exhibition.

The competition for the new museum building specified basic urban and architectural design guidelines:

• developing a large sculptural form derived from its relation to the historic old town,
• rendering the historic roof formations in the new buildings’ form,
• implementing an assertive architecture befitting the museum’s importance, and
• deriving the creative architectural design from an understanding of its use.

Museum Storage Facility in the Österreicher Stadel

Its second main feature, the storage facility for the collection, will be built in the Österreicher Stadel, a landmarked warehouse in the immediate vicinity of the museum. The building will be restored and equipped with advanced storage systems. The numerous objects and donations from the public, which have already entered the museum collection, will be stored there and available for the widest variety of exhibitions.

Media Center and Museum Administration in the Bavariathek

The building of the Bavariathek establishes the connection between the museum and the Österreicher Stadel. It houses project rooms and studios for the multi-media educational center as well as the offices of the museum administration.