The document describes the National Museum of Modern Literature designed by David Chipperfield Architects in Marbach, Germany. The museum is located on a hilltop overlooking the Neckar River valley, adjacent to the existing National Schiller Museum. Chipperfield's design includes a pavilion structure atop the hill that serves as the entrance, with exhibition galleries located below in a concrete base structure. The galleries provide environmentally controlled spaces to house the museum's collection of 20th century literature manuscripts.

1. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE MARBACH
DAVID CHIPPERFIELD
JORGE S. KILZI COMPO3 G41 | CELIA MARIN

2. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

3. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

4. LOCALITZACIÓ I PROGRAMA
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

5. LOCALITZACIÓ I PROGRAMA
RIU NECKAR
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF
MODERN LITERATURE
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

6. LOCALITZACIÓ I PROGRAMA
EL NOU MUSEU ÉS UNA AFEGITOR PROGRAMÀTICA
DEL SCHILLER MUSEUM, UN EDIFICI DE 1903 QUE
SERVEIX DE MUSEU DE LITERATURA UNIVERSAL QUE
PASSARÀ A CENTRAR-SE EN MANUSCRITS CLÀSSICS
ANTERIORS MENTRE EL NOU EDIFICI SERÀ ON ES
RECOLLIRAN MANUSCRITS PERTANYENTS A LA
LITERATURA MODERNA DEL SEGLE XX
RERE EL CONCURS, CHIPPERFIELD GUANYA I LA
CONSTRUCCIÓ COMENÇA EL 2002 I ACABA EL 2006.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

7. LOCALITZACIÓ I PROGRAMA
EL NOU MUSEU ÉS UNA AFEGITOR PROGRAMÀTICA
DEL SCHILLER MUSEUM, UN EDIFICI DE 1903 QUE
SERVEIX DE MUSEU DE LITERATURA UNIVERSAL QUE
PASSARÀ A CENTRAR-SE EN MANUSCRITS CLÀSSICS
ANTERIORS MENTRE EL NOU EDIFICI SERÀ ON ES
RECOLLIRAN MANUSCRITS PERTANYENTS A LA
LITERATURA MODERNA DEL SEGLE XX
RERE EL CONCURS, CHIPPERFIELD GUANYA I LA
CONSTRUCCIÓ COMENÇA EL 2002 I ACABA EL 2006.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

8. COMPOSICIÓ
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

9. COMPOSICIÓ
UN EDIFICI QUE CULMINA LA COLINA I QUE ES
MARCA COM A FITA DINTRE EL NUCLI URBÀ, UNA
AMPLIACIÓ A UN CONJUNT PREEXISTENT... LA IMATGE
DEL TEMPLE CLÀSSIC I LA SEVA VOLUNTAT DE
CORONAR EL PAISSATGE I D’ALIMENTAR-SE’N VA ESTAR
SOBRE LA TAULA D’ENTRADA.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

10. COMPOSICIÓ
HOUSE OF GERMAN CULTURE | MÜNCHEN
“But what is more interesting, perhaps, is that
Chipperfield won the commission for the museum
at all. That in a country still plagued by memories of
Nazi monumental classicism – Hitler’s neo-Grecian
House of German Culture, with its massive stone
columns, is not far away in Munich – and its
ongoing dilemma of how to achieve a suitable
expression of monumentality in its architecture, an
architect, a foreign one at that, would dare propose
a neo-classical colonnaded structure for a building
of such national importance” [...]
“Maybe it had to fall to an auslander, a foreigner, to
convince the jury that at this distance from the
Second World War an abstracted reduction of Nazi
classicism might be okay to contemplate.”
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

11. COMPOSICIÓ
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

12. COMPOSICIÓ
“We felt we were bringing back a sort of classicism
that hadn’t been seen in this part of Germany
since the [...]
“And the period was far enough away that the
discussion could be interesting. Germans are willing
to analyze what things mean. It’s a great climate to
work in. I wanted to reduce the architecture to its
most simplified, almost primitive form”. Still,
mischievously, he had to reassure one concerned
juror that the slender pre-cast concrete columns
weren’t fascist columns at all but mullions!
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

13. COMPOSICIÓ
BERLIN NATIONALGALERIE
“Visitors enter the museum through this upper level
lantern, reminiscent of Mies van der Rohe’s
entrance to the Berlin Art Gallery, with its crystalline
glass and steel pavilion atop a base. Marbach is
sparer, the pavilion marked by a screen of skinny
concrete columns, without capitals or bases,
wrapped around its four regular, symmetrical sides.
It sits ever so lightly, transparent-like, over the
exhibition galleries where the columns more
frequently turn into mullions for glass walls or
pilasters set against solid panels. Roof terraces,
podium walls and parapets are formed of
stringently linear planks of sandblasted pre-cast
concrete with a limestone aggregate.”
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

14. COMPOSICIÓ
UN CONCEPTE FUNCIONAL S’AMAGA DARRERE
AQUESTA INTENCIÓ FOMAL DE SEPARAR L’EDIFICI EN
UNA LLANTERNA QUE SERVEIXI D’ESPAI CÍVIC I
REPRESSENTATIU (TOTA ACOMPANYADA DE TERRASSES
DES D’ON CONTEMPLAR EL PAISATGE DES DE
L’ALTRUA DEL PUIG) I UN BASAMENT MÉS PESANT. DES
DE LA LLANTERNA S’HA L’ACCÉS I ES DESCÉN A LES SIS
SALES DE LA BASE, ON ES RECULL I PROTEGEIX LA
COL·LECCIÓ LITERÀRIA A UNA LUMINOCITAT
REDUÏDA.
“We wanted these galleries to be dark in a
positive way, not just dark boxes, but rooms with
architectural integrity”
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

15. COMPOSICIÓ
SALES DE CONSERVACIÓ
DINTRE EL BASAMENT, SIS SALES FOSQUES AMB
ADMOSFERA CONTROLADA ALBERGUEN EL COS DE
LA COL·LECCIÓ.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

16. PLANIMETRIA
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

17. PLANIMETRIA
PROJECT STATEMENT | PLANTEJAMENT DE PROJECTE
The museum is located in Marbach’s scenic
park, on top of a rock plateau overlooking the
valley of the Neckar River. As the birthplace of
the dramatist Friedrich Schiller, the town’s park
already held the National Schiller Museum, built
in 1903, and the Archive for German Literature,
built in the 1970s. Displaying artefacts from the
extensive 20th century collection from the
Archive for German Literature, notably the
original manuscripts of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial”
and Alfred Döblin’s
“Berlin Alexanderplatz”, the museum also
provides panoramic views across and over the
distant landscape. Embedded in the topography,
the museum reveals different elevations
depending on the viewpoint. By utilising the
steep slope of the site, terraces allow for the
creation of very different characters: an intimate,
shaded entrance on the brow of the
hill facing the National Schiller Museum with its
forecourt and park, and a grander, more open
series of tiered spaces facing the valley below. A
pavilion-like volume is located on the highest
terrace, providing the entrance to the museum.
David Chipperfield Architects
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

18. PLANIMETRIA
The interiors
of the museum reveal themselves as one
descends down through the loggia, foyer and
staircase spaces, preparing the visitor for the
dark timber-panelled exhibition galleries,
illuminated only by artificial light due to fragility
and sensitivity of the works
on display. At the same time, each of these
environmentally controlled spaces borders onto
a naturally lit gallery, balancing views inward to
the composed, internalized world of texts and
manuscripts with the green and scenic valley on
the other side of the glass.
A clearly defined material concept using solid
materials (fair- faced concrete, sandblasted
reconstituted stone with limestone aggregate,
limestone, wood, felt and glass) gives the calm,
rational architectural language a sensual physical
presence.
David Chipperfield Architects
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

19. PLANIMETRIA
PLANTA ACCÉS (P0)
01 Foyer | arees d’accés
02 Auditori
03 Pou de llum de doble alçada
04 Terrasses
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

20. PLANIMETRIA
PLANTA SALES (-1)
05 Hall
06 Espais d’Exibició
07 Exibició Temporal
08 Loggie
09 W.C.
10 Espais Tècnics
11 Corredor d’Interconnexió
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

21. TOUR FOTOGRÀFIC
01 Foyer | arees d’accés
02 Auditori
03 Pou de llum de doble alçada
04 Terrasses
05 Hall
06 Espais d’Exibició
07 Exibició Temporal
08 Loggie
09 W.C.
10 Espais Tècnics
11 Corredor d’Interconnexió
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

22. TOUR FOTOGRÀFIC
01 Foyer | arees d’accés
02 Auditori
03 Pou de llum de doble alçada
04 Terrasses
05 Hall
06 Espais d’Exibició
01 08 07 Exibició Temporal 0
08 Loggie
09 W.C.
10 Espais Tècnics
11 Corredor d’Interconnexió
03
01 03
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

23. TOUR FOTOGRÀFIC
01 Foyer | arees d’accés
02 Auditori
03 Pou de llum de doble alçada
04 Terrasses
05 Hall
06 Espais d’Exibició
07 Exibició Temporal
05 08 Loggie
09 W.C.
10 Espais Tècnics
11 Corredor d’Interconnexió
05 05
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

24. TOUR FOTOGRÀFIC
01 Foyer | arees d’accés
02 Auditori
03 Pou de llum de doble alçada
04 Terrasses
05 Hall
06 Espais d’Exibició
07 Exibició Temporal
06 08 Loggie
09 W.C.
10 Espais Tècnics
11 Corredor d’Interconnexió
02
06 06
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

25. TOUR FOTOGRÀFIC
06
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH

26. BIBLIOGRAFIA
http://einstein.tumblr.com/post/15041
http://es.inmagine.com/imagebrokerrm-333/ptg01459969-photo
http://www.architecture.com/
http://www.architecture.com/Awards/RoyalGoldMedal/
175Exhibition/WinnersBiogs/2010s/DavidChipperfield.aspx
http://www.architecture.com/Awards/RIBAEuropeanAwards/2007/
MuseumOfModernLiterature/MuseumOfModernLiterature.aspx
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/germany/marbach_museum.htm
http://www.dla-marbach.de/
http://www.dezeen.com
http://www.concrete.net.au/CplusA/issue9/Museum%20of
%20Modern%20Literature,%20Germany.pdf
Revista C+A nº 9
El Croquis | David Chipperfield
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN LITERATURE | MARBACH