Located in Munich, between the rigid chessboard grid of the Maxvorstadt and the irregular system of the old city centre, the starting-point for Stephan Braunfels Architekten was to fit the new museum, Pinakothek Der Moderne, into this urban context.

Therefore they opened the museum to both sides, with a great diagonal that links the two entrances, leading to a great shining rotunda with cupola in the centre, where all internal routes of the museum begin and end. Meanwhile, a large staircase corresponds with the diagonal entrance as it connects the three mail levels of the museum in one flight.

To encourage people to focus on the art, the architects developed simple, clear top-lip galleries, rectangular or square in various proportions, appropriate to the works of art, with white walls and a reticent terrazzo floor.

The entire upper floor is a sequence of rooms lit exclusively by daylight, featuring skylight grids to make the galleries appear higher and illuminate them as evenly as possible. On the other levels, the artificial light filters in through a recessed skylit ceiling, achieving a clean impression throughout museum.

Views of the outside are constantly available from the smaller exhibition spaces between the galleries on the upper floor, and on the ground floor through high studio windows.

There are simply no superlatives to justly describe this project. I hope you enjoy this work as much as I do.