WIT Press


The Berlin 'Neues Museum' - A Microcosm Of Prussian Building Technology Against The Background Of Beginning Industrialization

Price

Free (open access)

Volume

42

Pages

10

Published

1999

Size

1,817 kb

Paper DOI

10.2495/STR990381

Copyright

WIT Press

Author(s)

W. Lorenz

Abstract

The 'Neues Museum', situated in the historic center of Berlin, was built between 1841 and 1859. Heavily damaged during world war II and increasingly ruined in the following decades, it is presently awaiting restoration, the plans for which have been drafted by the British architect David Chipperfleld. This paper goes into the role of this masterpiece of Prussian classicism as a high-tech structure in its time, characterized by a wide range of unusual and newly developed construc- tion methods - various light weight brick vaultings as well as hollow pot vaul- tings, but, of primary importance, a multitude of often hidden cast iron and wrought iron structural elements. The building's design and history, as

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