The entrance area is accessible via glass doors from both from the street side and the garden. From there, stairs lead to the building’s upper and lower floors. Diffuse glare-free daylight falls through the circumferential band of windows made of frosted glass in the exhibition rooms.
The base for this functional yet refined solution is an open reinforced concrete rectangular container, measuring 8 x 24 x 3 meters, which was sunk to its upper edge in the ground. Resting on it are two reinforced concrete tubes, which support a wooden construction of posts and transoms. This creates the exterior impression of a floating “box” of birch wood. Inside, the bricked and simply plastered walls, in interaction with the flush-fitted windows, create a harmonious space.
This early work of Herzog & de Meuron is an icon of contemporary architecture. It was their first exhibition building and made them internationally known. The collector Ingvild Goetz had originally planned it as a private collector’s gallery, but shortly after its inauguration in 1993 it was opened to the public. In 2014, she donated the building and land to the Free State of Bavaria, which continues to use it as an exhibition space for contemporary art in accordance with the collector’s wish.
After about 30 years of intensive exhibition activity, extensive renovation and modernization work was needed. However, the preliminary structural surveys revealed that the building could no longer be restored economically. The original home of the Sammlung Goetz will therefore remain permanently closed.
