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Art Museum,
Duisburg, Germany,
Herzog & De Meuron

	The Kuppersmuhle in Duisburg was built between 1908 and 1916 by the Keifer Brothers and Joseph Weiss, the imposing brick warehouse has a strong monumental quality, reinforced by heroic scale and robust materiality. It is the most historically significant structure in Duisburg's inner harbor,  an area currently being rejuvenated to a master plan by Norman Foster. A key aspect of the master plan strategy involves finding new uses for industrial antiquities such as the Kuppersmuhle.
Kuppersmuhle was converted by Herzog & de Meuron to house Hans Grothe's collection of the postwar German art, an important assembly that includes works by Polke, Baselitz and Kiefer among others.  Most of the Kuppersmuhle's load-bearing structure was fruitfully incorporated into the building's renovation, although some of the existing floors were removed to accommodate the larger 5m high galleries. Three floors of the exhibition spaces are linked by a new stair tower, placed to the rear of the main warehouse block. The stark lines of the tower echo Kuppersmuhle muscular, industrial functionalism. Narrow strips of vertical glazing are crisply incised into the tower's terracotta colored concrete flanks.

Inside the tower, a graceful stair winds up to the galleries, creating a logical and leisurely promenade through the building. The warmth of the terracotta walls and the organic sensuousness of the stair give the confined space a remarkable warm-like quality. The proportions of the stair treads are intended to slow down progress slightly, so that the visitors proceed through the building at a pace conductive to the heightened contemplation of art.

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