Hans Hollein’s Masterpiece

The Austrian architect-artist Hans Hollein was appointed in 1972 to design a new museum for the post-industrial city of Moenchengladbach in what at that point was still West Germany. Opening in 1982, Museum Abteiberg was instantly lauded by international critics for its integration into the cityscape by use of an architectural collage of diverse building fragments and Hollein was duly awarded the 1985 Pritzker Prize largely on the basis of this project. In its first week open to the general public more than 20,000 people flocked to the city to visit Museum Abteiberg, becoming a pilgrimage for those interested in contemporary architecture and triggering a new type of architectural tourism, well over a decade before Frank Gehry completed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

This book provides a comprehensive reappraisal of the museum from concept, through the design process to its completion, including previously unpublished material, such as models, drawings, historical background and cultural status. It questions the role of museums as 'cultural hinges', whose architecture and artworks within connect them to their surrounding city. Seminal permanent exhibitions by artists as distinct as Joseph Beuys and Daniel Buren are highlighted, discussing their close collaboration with Hollein. Many of the ideas that they first realised in this building have now become the norm in museum practice. As such, the book promises to offer new insights into museums as an architectural typology more generally.