OPENING In 1855, Prussian royal architect Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Schinkel, completed his best-known work, the Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island. Built to house the national antiquities collection, the museum was heavily bombed during World War II, and its neo-Pompeiian and Egyptian-revival interiors remained in a ruinous state until British architect David Chipperfield completed his unsentimental renovation last month. The building is momentarily open to visitors in an empty state, scars of war honestly exposed, before the antiquities go back on display. smb.museum
David Chipperfield Architects, Ute Zscharnt OPENING In 1855, Prussian royal architect Friedrich August Stüler, a student of Schinkel, completed his best-known work, the Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island. Built to house the national antiquities collection, the museum was heavily bombed during World War II, and its neo-Pompeiian and Egyptian-revival interiors remained in a ruinous state until British architect David Chipperfield completed his unsentimental renovation last month. The building is momentarily open to visitors in an empty state, scars of war honestly exposed, before the antiquities go back on display. smb.museum