Extension of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne

The extension, designed by Swiss architects Christ & Gantenbein, will be built in Cologne's old town and connected to the museum's existing building by an underground connecting structure. This will create around 5,500 square meters of gross floor area for the museum and around 900 square meters of gross floor area for high-quality municipal administration space, which will be created in the new block development.

The highlights of the project include the southern corner of the building, which is supported by a massive steel intercepting girder due to the subway tunnels below. The building structure is supported by cantilevers over a Roman city wall and an ancient culvert structure, so that these historical documents remain virtually intact in the ground.

Inside, up to 11-metre free-span concrete ceilings impress with the highest design standards, which are realized in a sophisticated composite system of precast and in-situ concrete with concealed integrated building technology. The façade picks up on the archaeological layers of the city with an elaborately reliefed brick structure in combination with a lettering base made of pigmented exposed concrete.

The underground connecting corridor under Martinstrasse links the new extension with the existing building - a masterpiece of modern building culture in the heart of Cologne's old town.

One of the aims of the work is to create the optimal accommodation and presentation of the Corboud Collection. The Swiss Gerhard J. Corboud and his wife Marisol, a native of Cologne, lived in Cologne for a long time. In 2001, they left a collection of 170 paintings to the City of Cologne "as a perpetual loan" for the benefit of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and thus placed it in the care of the City of Cologne.