Kunsthalle Mannheim
gmp · Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner

The design consists of seven interconnected cubes that cluster around a large central atrium. At 21 meters high, this public space serves as the heart of the building—an indoor plaza animated by bridges, stairs, and galleries that link the exhibition volumes. Each cube functions as an “art house” of its own, connected yet distinct. Between them, voids open up as visual corridors, terraces, and circulation paths.

The architecture continues the rhythm of Mannheim’s city grid: the street flows into the building, public space becomes museum space, and vice versa. A metal mesh façade, set 1.10 meters in front of the actual building skin, creates a permeable outer envelope. It unifies the ensemble while maintaining transparency and depth.

Behind the shimmering mesh, each of the seven cubes features its own cladding of dark fiber cement panels, invisibly fixed to an aluminum substructure. The contrast between inner solidity and outer lightness reinforces the building’s urban metaphor. The façade’s mesh—developed specially for the project from bronze-colored stainless steel cables, tubes, and wire rope—establishes a visual connection to the sandstone of surrounding buildings.

At dusk, the museum glows from within, revealing its multilayered interiors. By day, its spatial complexity is expressed in the shifting densities of the double façade. Views open across levels and volumes, from old to new and out toward the city. The Kunsthalle becomes not just a container for art, but a city within the city.

gmp developed the FSB 1244 model specifically for this project. Made of stainless steel, the handle fuses circle and square into a form that’s both rational and inviting. The tube-like grip emerges as a circle from the door, then becomes a half-cylinder, joined to a half-square that nestles against the hand.

True to the architects’ ethos, the handle is reduced to geometric essentials—but its impact is sensory. It holds back visually, but asserts itself through touch. The clarity of the design ensures that it will endure—not just as a detail, but as a gesture aligned with the building’s larger architectural language.