Competition Art Museum

In spring 2009, the Canton of Basel-Stadt announced an anonymous project competition in a selective procedure for the extension of the Kunstmuseum Basel on the neighbouring plot of the current Laurenz building. Blaser Architekten and Rapp Arcoplan took part in a team together with Tadao Ando.

The proposed new building takes up the urban morphology of the ambiguous site and emphasises the prismatic geometry of the skin against the solid core. Despite the strict geometric structure, generous visual contacts to the interior and exterior space are possible, while the reduced building cube allows urban views and is integrated into the urban fabric. The articulation of the volume and the continuation of the arcade create a visual connection between the museums and the city. In addition, the duality between past and present is interpreted in a contemporary way through the extension of the arcade. The highly developed transparency of the façade can be experienced from the inside to the outside and vice versa. The silhouettes of visitors and art, which can be viewed in the outer galleries, encourage passers-by to visit the museum.