Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig

Functional architecture

The architectural concept for the construction of the Neubau annexe was developed by Prof. Ulrich Coermeier GmbH and architects Ilg Friebe Nauber, working under contract to LESG, the city of Leipzig’s own company in charge of development and redevelopment. The driving motive behind the concept was to find a practical and compact solution for the Museum’s new annexe providing floor space of 3920 square metres. The creative result is a functional museum building with a ground area of 610 square metres, a height of 22 metres and variable open-plan rooms.
The functional architecture was developed from the inside out and subdivides the building into two zones: a public area with entrance hall, exhibition spaces, studio, visitors’ service and library reading room for the and the photograph collection, and an office zone with workshops, offices, staff room and service facilities.

The museum’s entrance hall with its information centre is designed as a foyer. It leads into the bright, two-storey high exhibition room with a floor space of 450 square metres and a height of 6 metres which is ideal for the presentation of modern exhibitions on specific subjects. The room also gives changing views of the Museum der bildenden Künste (Museum of Visual Arts) and the city. The basement houses service facilities and a studio which can be used for events, media presentations, small exhibitions or displaying parts of the repository. The mezzanine floor with its studio character and glass fronts allowing views of the city on one side and of the exhibition floor on the other and below is the ideal location for the visitor’s service centre.

The Neubau’s ashlar outer skin features a building material long typical in Leipzig: red porphyry tuff from the Rochlitz quarry in northwest Saxony. The grain of the stone and the way the joints are arranged breathe life into the elevation topped with a glass penthouse, while the projection on the Böttchergsschen side breaks up the fasade. Viewed from the street, the Neubau produces an interesting contrast to the glass building of the Museum der bildenden Künste next door. The rear fasade features moveable zinc consoles that can be used for displaying external exhibits. There is a plan to establish a collection of historical sculptures and architectural fragments on this side of the fasade in reference to the building’s repository function.