david chipperfield architects adds art museum to carmen würth forum in germany

david chipperfield’s berlin studio has added an art museum to a culture and congress center in southern germany. this phase of the project, previously featured on designboom here, completes the ‘carmen würth forum’ for adolf würth’s international company. located near the firm’s künzelsau headquarters, the complex is intended as a gathering place for würth employees as well as the wider community. ‘it symbolizes the connection between a place of work, its community and the surrounding environment, which the company has nurtured so impressively over the years,’ says david chipperfield.

art museum, belvedere | image © simon menges (also main image)

david chipperfield architects designed the museum’s contemplative exhibition spaces to showcase pieces from the würth collection, which comprises more than 18,000 works of modern and contemporary art as well as a significant number of late medieval paintings and sculptures. the museum includes a large, divisible exhibition hall and a smaller, more intimate graphics art gallery. ‘through a glazed belvedere, the museum opens up to the vast landscape and initiates a dialogue between the works of art and the place, continued in a sculpture park set in the scenic surroundings of the carmen würth forum,’ explain the architects.

view from northwest | image © simon menges

‘the clear architecture of the forum adopts the forms and language of industrial architecture, while refining it in terms of materiality,’ continues the firm. intended to serve as a continuously open ‘forum’, the building also contains a flexible conference area. in 2017, david chipperfield architects completed concert and large events halls as part of the project’s first phase. see more projects by david chipperfield on designboom here.

art museum, exhibition hall | image © simon menges

art museum, graphical art gallery | image © simon menges

conference area | image © simon menges

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project info:

name: carmen würth forum, phase 2
location: künzelsau, germany
competition: 2006 – 2007
phase 1: 2011 – 2017, chamber music hall and event hall
phase 2: conference centre, museum
project start: 2018
construction start: 2018
completion: 2020
gross floor area: 5,500 sqm
client: adolf würth GmbH & co. KG — represented by paul krämer (for all construction concerns) and c. sylvia weber (for all museum concerns)
project controlling: drees & sommer AG, stuttgart
architect: david chipperfield architects berlin
partners: david chipperfield, harald müller, martin reichert, alexander schwarz (design lead)

competition —
project architect: annette flohrschütz
competition team: sandra badji, markus bauer, jan blaurock, ute burdelski, mirjam von busch, florian dirschedl, ulrike eberhardt, hannah jonas, hjördis klein, barbara koller, martina maire, jana raudnitzky, stefanie schleipen, marika schmidt, moritz uhlmann; grafik, visualisierung: dalia liksaite, antonia schlegel, ute zscharnt

phase 2 —
project architect: marcus mathias (preparation and brief to technical design, site design and construction supervision, procurement)
project team: alexander bellmann, leander bulst, bernhard danigel, dirk gschwind, christopher jonas, linda von karstedt, maximilian lohmann, thomas schöpf, nils stelter; graphics, visualisation: dalia liksaite, ken polster

in collaboration with —
executive architect: kraft + kraft architekten, schwäbisch hall (procurement, construction supervision) represented by gerd eckert and markus masseretti
structural engineer: mayer-vorfelder und dinkelacker ingenieurgesellschaft für bauwesen GmbH und co KG, sindelfingen
services engineer: ZB zimmermann und becker gmbh, heilbronn; PBS ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, aalen (electrical consultant)
building physics, acoustics: horstmann + berger, altensteig
fire consultant: halfkann + kirchner, stuttgart
façade consultant: reba fassadentechnik AG, chur
lighting consultant: arup deutschland GmbH, berlin (daylight consultant)