Berlin's new museum of modern art is sparking controversy

At a time when the art world is mobilising around the climate crisis and its repercussions, the new Museum of Modern Art in Berlin is the subject of controversy. Experts from the fields of both culture and architecture are calling out this ambitious project for its environmental impact.

The Museum of the 20th Century, designed by Swiss “starchitects” Herzog and de Meuron, has been under construction since 2019. It is, in fact, an extension of the Neue Nationalgalerie, in the form of an exhibition space designed to house a collection of Modernist works by artists like Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner among others.

This ambitious project is estimated to cost €450 million (RM2 billion), more than double the initial projected cost of €179 million, according to the Guardian. The construction of this new museum of modern art, whose shape has earned it the nicknames of “the barn” or “the beer tent,” aims to give Berlin a role as a trendsetter on the modern art scene. The intention is to put the German capital on the same levle as London with the Tate Modern, or New York with the MoMA.

However, not everyone in Germany’s art and architecture circles is convinced by the Museum of the 20th Century project. In recent months, many experts have taken aim at the building’s energy efficiency, as well as the use of concrete for its consstruction.

Indeed, this material is said to account for 7 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a World Cement and Concrete Association 2021 report. “If the cement industry were a country, it would rank as the world’s fourth largest GHG-emitter,” says a Natural Resources Defence Council article from earlier this year.

Worst Case Scenario for Modern Art?

“An absolute worst-case scenario” from an ecological point of view”

In addition, the museum’s open and transparent internal structure would require the installation of a very sophisticated ventilation system to regulate the building’s temperature and humidity levels.

An infrastructure that some detractors of the 20th Century Museum consider problematic from the perspective of energy efficiency. “Ecologically, the whole thing will be an absolute worst-case scenario” because the building is completely air-permeable… that means very large air currents [that] have to be cooled or heated, depending on whether it’s summer or winter,” architect Nikolaus Bernau told German radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

While the energy costs of the future Museum of modern art have been known about for some time, the recent rise in energy prices gives grist to the mill of the project’s detractors. All the more so since the project has been delayed: the museum was originally set to be inaugurated in 2021.

In response to the controversy, the German parliament has allocated an additional 10 million euros to the construction of the Museum of the 20th Century in order to remedy the energy issues of Herzog and de Meuron’s project.

However, Germany’s Minister of Culture, Claudia Roth, has asked that the plans for the building be revisited. She would like the architects to use less concrete and install solar panels and tanks to collect and reuse rainwater. So much for modern art.

These developments, she said, would make the Museum of the 20th Century “the coolest museum” in Berlin. – ETX Studio