THE WEDGE – MODERN DESIGN MUSEUM

The city of Dessau has a rich history in modernist design and locals share a down to earth attitude towards design. Here architecture doesn’t serve as a flamboyant representation of power and capital, but as a humble structure supporting and facilitating the local lives. As the city of Dessau becomes more fragmented into little islands that emit little identity, can the new museum of modernism and design rally the city and become a landscape where the city can grow upon once more?

We propose a new museum at the core of the city. We try to integrate the building into surroundings by creating a landscaped roof structure and by engaging it with the city center through a passage. The structure facilitates the natural flow of the park and enhances linear movement of the city.

The museum is embedded into its urban context where the building becomes a part of the landscape, resembling a wedge being placed on the existing park. The site is firstly trimmed according to programs. Through a humble gesture the northern site is elevated to create a noticeable accent point towards the post office building, defining boundaries.  The facilitation of the Ratgasse passage cuts the museum volume in two and it is reconnected through an underground floor within the museum. 

 The green sloping roofscape extends the park vertically and encourages people to utilize it with various activities. The roof is kept free of obstacles but filled in with facilities that generate spontaneity and creative use. We can see a multitude of different events take place like a gathering place for the Sommerkino, picnic spots, yoga field, open air stage and an observational deck. Its sloping shape provides a noticeable point of interest as it highest point leans towards the post office building. It is noticeable yet never dominant while it stimulates the interaction between locals and the park.  Its shape creates orientation in the urban context while still humbly blends in its green surrounding.

The arrangement of programs exemplifies the clarity and honesty of the new museum and portrays it as an open integral green machine. Service areas are liberated from enclosed corridors and are summoned as important actors in the experience of the entire museum. Storages become showcase vitrines, celebrating modernism art collections in an everyday fashion. By showcasing the repair studio, we seek to rise up and reinforce the awareness and social recognition of modernism artworks. It creates a setting where people can learn, recreate and experiment. The educational center is situated at the central patio, and can be easily converted to podium toward public for certain occasions. Here the knowledge about Modernism is shared and broadcasted not only to visitors but also to pedestrians passing through the passage.

Concrete and glass demonstrate a clean and monochrome background context. It shapes an autonomous space, infinite, timeless, where both the visitors and collections are being exhibited to each other.