Wallpaper Museum

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When the backdrop
takes center stage

Year: Competition 2017

Client: County of Hessen

Program: Museum for wallpaper

Size: 4,800 m²

Located in the heart of Kassel’s historic museum landscape, the 4,800 m² museum is the world’s first and only museum dedicated to wallpaper. Offering gentle counterbalance to the historic context, the museum appears as a white canvas for the 23,000 wallpaper objects on display. Resembling a roll of wallpaper, façade openings, staircases and exhibition walls have rounded corners, and the general architectural approach is a gesture of sensitivity and calm. In this way, wallpaper becomes the focal point for the overall design concept, celebrating the museum’s state-of-the-art collection that extends from the 15th century to the present day, including gilt-leather specimens from the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras as well as flocked and canvas wallpapers from the 18th century and hand-printed French panoramic wallpapers from the 19th century.

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The museum’s wallpaper collection is the largest and most impressive of its kind in the world.

When background
becomes foreground
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The new section of the building respects the location and its prominent existing neighbourhood by virtue of its gentle volume and placement at the Brothers Grimm square. The façade of the new building creates a backdrop for the historic building.

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The project is an extension to a historic building already housing the wallpaper museum.

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The façade as background.

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The new building stages the historic building.

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Four clearly defined exhibition spaces relating to the existing levels.

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Two entrances: One public and one private.

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The gaps in the wall offer spaces for breaks during the museum visit.

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A clear exhibition flow unfolding throughout the building.

The interior is designed to stage the outstanding wallpaper collection in a fresh and contemporary way. This way the old and the new buildings will be experienced as a harmonious whole.

Dan Stubbergaard, architect and founder, Cobe
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Façade detail from the wall bending into the exhibition space and allowing a connection to the outside.

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Wallpaper. Part of “Scènes Japonaise”, Producer: Züber et Cie, 1902.
Image: Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel.

Location: Kassel, Germany, Competition

Client: County of Hessen

Program: Museum for wallpaper

Size: 4,800 m²

Year: Competition 2017

Collaborators: Arup

Team: Caroline Nagel, Dan Stubbergaard, David Bartlett Vowell, Greta Tiedje, Maria Aufegger, Matti Hein Nørgaard, Sigrid Marie Poulsen, Ulrich Pohl, Yannick Courtin.