From 1961 to 1968, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built a modernist icon in West Berlin: the Neue Nationalgalerie. Over time, structural stress caused glass panes to crack, and the demands of museum operations outgrew the building’s original capacities. In 2017, the City of Berlin commissioned David Chipperfield Architects to renovate the building—with one central requirement: leave no visible trace.
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Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin
Potsdamer Str. 50
10785 Berlin
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Das weitläufige Untergeschoss der Neuen Nationalgalerie behaust die Sammlungspräsentation des Hauses und gewährt Zugang zum Skulpturengarten.
Die originalen Stoßgriffe, wie von Mies van der Rohe bestimmt, werden durch Sonderanfertigungen von FSB ergänzt und damit der aktuellen Brandschutzordnung gerecht.
“The client made it clear that whoever took on the project should not challenge Mies van der Rohe. There is only room for one architect in this building. That may sound humble, but it’s simply obvious.”
Renovating a historic building often allows little room for visible design intervention. Priorities tend to include energy efficiency, accessibility, and fire safety—yet pragmatic additions can threaten a building’s aesthetic integrity.
David Chipperfield Architects had already demonstrated a sensitive approach with the renovation of Berlin’s Neues Museum in 2009, reconciling historical authenticity with contemporary technical requirements.
Their task for the Neue Nationalgalerie was to preserve Mies van der Rohe’s vision while enabling modern functionality. Roughly 35,000 original components were dismantled, restored, and reinstalled—including 2,500 square meters of natural stone cladding. Some 1,600 square meters of glass were replaced with modern laminated safety glass while preserving the single-glazed look. This allowed the elegant, slender form of the building to endure.
Mies van der Rohe conceived the museum as a two-part structure: a temple-like upper hall and a recessed base housing the exhibition spaces. The lower-level galleries gain their contemplative quality from an adjacent garden, shielded from the city outside. In contrast, the main hall boldly embraces the urban realm. Measuring nine meters high, entirely glazed, and completely column-free, it forms the spiritual heart of the museum.
David Chipperfield emphasized the importance of Mies’ floor plans, noting that his spatial compositions are architectural works of art in themselves. Where interventions were necessary—for instance, the addition of an accessible ramp and elevator—they were executed with utmost discretion. The most significant spatial change was the transformation of former storage rooms into a cloakroom and museum shop. Here, the architects exposed the original concrete ceiling, once concealed, allowing the clarity of Mies’ structural logic to emerge.
Where possible, original door handles from the 1960s were refurbished and reinstalled. A new handle was jointly developed to replace aging hardware while remaining true to the original design. For the emergency exit doors, a custom vertical lever handle was created: the FSB 1045, featuring a green arrow for visibility.
Restroom doors were fitted with the specially adapted FSB 1015 model, using custom rose designs for both sides of the door. The original handles from 1968 trace their lineage to designs for the ITT campus in Chicago, where Mies van der Rohe also designed the iconic S. R. Crown Hall.
The result is a renovation that fully respects the legacy of Mies van der Rohe while subtly meeting contemporary needs—an architectural exercise in restraint, logic, and reverence.
