For more than 80 years, people strolling through the various floors of the Schocken department store in Chemnitz were a familiar sight. Built in 1930 by Erich Mendelsohn, the structure now houses the State Museum of Archaeology. With great care and restraint, the architects have refurbished this icon of modernism with its eye-catching banded facade. Atelier Brückner has designed a state-of-the-art exhibition extending over four storeys with a segmental layout, where visitors pass through 300,000 years of human history.
From a sunken atrium on the ground floor, a vertical space rises over all three levels. Here, a mobile map of Saxony is suspended, and on every floor, at the end face of the stepped ramp that links the individual storeys, visitors can see a 21-metre-high cross-section that brings to life different layers of archaeological excavation. Spatially defining elements articulate the individual exhibition levels into distinct zones. The exhibits themselves are displayed in showcases that are so finely designed that they are almost invisible. The fact that these transparent cabinets have complex air conditioning to protect the often delicate objects inside is not evident.
On every level, floor graphics indicate the specific historical themes. Although the layout is initially organic and has a natural curvature, the geometry becomes increasingly orthogonal. On every floor, 40-metre-long curved panoramic walls are set parallel to the facade. On the first two levels, one sees extensive views of the landscape. On the third floor is the so-called “wall of everyday things”, where roughly 1,200 objects are presented, also in actively or passively air-conditioned acrylic showcases.
From a sunken atrium on the ground floor, a vertical space rises over all three levels. Here, a mobile map of Saxony is suspended, and on every floor, at the end face of the stepped ramp that links the individual storeys, visitors can see a 21-metre-high cross-section that brings to life different layers of archaeological excavation. Spatially defining elements articulate the individual exhibition levels into distinct zones. The exhibits themselves are displayed in showcases that are so finely designed that they are almost invisible. The fact that these transparent cabinets have complex air conditioning to protect the often delicate objects inside is not evident.
On every level, floor graphics indicate the specific historical themes. Although the layout is initially organic and has a natural curvature, the geometry becomes increasingly orthogonal. On every floor, 40-metre-long curved panoramic walls are set parallel to the facade. On the first two levels, one sees extensive views of the landscape. On the third floor is the so-called “wall of everyday things”, where roughly 1,200 objects are presented, also in actively or passively air-conditioned acrylic showcases.