The design proposal for the German Wallpaper Museum in the heart of Kassel’s rich museum landscape replaces the existing courtyard building with a cohesive and efficient barrierfree design. The new museum defines both the historically significant Brothers Grimm Square and the streetfront along Friedrichstrasse, sucessfuly integrating the building into the existing context.

To underline the importance of the museum at the urban scale, the entrance to the Wilhelmshöher Allee is also redesigned. In front of the museum the existing trees are incorporated into the inclined ground plane leading up to the entrance, and from the Schuddelecke a public garden leads into the building’s courtyard.

The museum spans between the new cantilevered projection parallel to Friedrichstrasse and the original Torwache.

This shared volumetric language creates a harmonious relationship between the old and new buildings. The facade of the new building again refers to the historical buildings by translating the delicate neoclassical rhythm of the Fürstenhauses into a flat relief of ornamented and untreated precast concrete elements. The original Fürstenhauses facade is superimposed onto the openings of the new building, effectively weaving together the old with the new. Owing to the ornamental character and scale of the façade, this treatment refers to the museum’s wallpaper collection as it celebrates pictorial wall design.