Karlsplatz is an ensemble of architectural styles ranging from the Baroque Karlskiriche to the Art Nouveau Vienna Secession. The Wien Museum was the first museum built during the Second Austrian Republic. This alone should let the museum stand out, but it doesn’t. It is greatly overshadowed. Today one barely notices it in the square.

The competition’s requests were simple. The museum needs to be larger. It has to be extended. It has to fit to today’s museum standards. But one can not touch the facade, as it is under preservation order. They offered studies of extensions to the top, underground, or even a new solitary structure.

I say, the Wien Museum Neu does not need a new fancy hat! It does not need to extend underground! Nor does it need a foreign structure to extend itself! What it needs is a mirror of itself.