Museum of the 20th Century, Berlin

Construction on the Museum of the 20th Century is facing some setbacks. The new museum is being built in the heart of Berlin, in the area known as the Kulturforum, located between the Neue Nationalgalerie and the Berlin Philharmonie. The building, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, will allow the Prussian State Museums to display its expanding collection of 20th-century art, which has tripled in size since the 1960s. Working alongside Herzog & de Meuron are landscape architects Vogt. It is expected that the museum will display the “modern classical” works in the Mies van der Rohe-designed Nationalgalerie when complete. While the new building will show larger-scale works from the century’s latter half. However, as the project has progressed, it has suffered some serious setbacks, with the budget soaring from €200 million to €450 million. In late 2022, among public outcry over the energy crisis in Germany, it was reported that the building’s complex air conditioning system would mean the building would require four times as much energy as older museum buildings. Germany’s federal audit office has requested the building plan be made more energy efficient. In late 2022, the German parliament granted the project a further €9.9 million from the national budget to make the building more sustainable. Herzog & de Meuron co-founder Jacques Herzog suggested that there are limited options to improve the sustainability of the building at this stage and that solar panels and using recycled materials and photovoltaics were possibilities. In January 2023, the museum issued tenders for construction logistics contractors to support the construction project and building contractors to set up construction site infrastructure. In March 2023, Berlin-based firm CBB Construction Building Brandenburg GmbH was appointed to provide construction logistics. For now, the museum is still scheduled to open in 2026. (Updated 17 March 2023)