Colonnade Courtyard

The Museum Island has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1999. The owner, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, stipulated that during the ensemble’s restoration the individuality of each building had to be maintained. It was therefore of the utmost importance that the museum’s open space serve to link the diverse buildings in a harmonious fashion.
Museum Island provides a magical setting, as it is secluded and yet in the midst of the city. Our garden design reinvigorates that magic. To emphasise the feeling of being on an island, we have created a single entity from its many individual parts. In doing so, we have taken our cue from the themes of the old Colonnade Courtyard. We have refrained from too much historicising and have given the open space a modern and individual character. The result is a harmonious entity.
This famous ensemble of museums on an island in the River Spree, in the heart of Berlin, is also a historic garden monument.
The central motif of the Colonnade Courtyard is formed by the two rows of columns that surround it. It sets the scene through which you enter this haven and makes Museum Island a distinctive landmark, even from afar.
We developed a reduced design idiom with regard to the plants used, so that they would interact with the island’s classical architecture and sculptures. We took a similar approach with the furniture and paths, which harmonise perfectly with their surroundings. The unobtrusive planting areas have three different shades of green.
For the design competition in 2001, we not only developed a concept for the open space between Bodestraße and the northern tip of the island, but also a lighting scheme for the entire ensemble and the open space on the island.
The new lighting concept makes both the colonnade and its courtyard seem as if they are immersed in a kind of artificial moonlight.

Client
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation,
represented by the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Architect
Architekten Petersen, Berlin

Competition
1st prize, February 2001

Service phases
2-8

Completion
June 2010

Photos
Claas Dreppenstedt

Lighting design
Conceptlicht GmbH, Traunreut