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Order placed with Renzo Piano
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18.12.1998
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At its meeting today (18 December 1998), the Board of the Maurice E. and Martha Müller Foundation (MMMF) decided to commission the prestigious international architect and museum specialist, Renzo Piano, to prepare a preliminary design of the Paul Klee Museum in Bern.
On 4 November 1998, a contract was signed between the Müllers and the Canton, the City and the Civic Community
of Bern which transfers responsibility for construction of the Paul Klee Museum to the Maurice E. and Martha Müller Foundation. As a foundation established under private law, it is at liberty to decide on the procedure leading up to the building project.
After careful study of the different variants, the Foundation Board decided at its meeting of 18 December 1998 to place a commission directly with Renzo Piano. In its decision, it was guided primarily by the following considerations: firstly, it wanted to construct a museum which satisfied the highest standards of quality. Secondly, the entire project was under pressure of time as the Livia Klee-Meyer-Meyer donation was accompanied by clear stipulations for the timing of the museum construction. The Foundation Board also felt that, by organizing a competitive tender procedure, it would run the risk that the most prominent international architectural practices might not participate. That being so the Foundation Board finally agreed to place a direct order in the conviction that this would enable a high quality project to be implemented in the quickest and most reliable way.
When a direct commission is placed, the decision in favour of a particular architect is based on the work done by him or her so far. That was the basis on which the Foundation Board opted for Renzo Piano as its ideal candidate. This star architect, who was born in Genoa in 1937, can look back on a long list of excellent buildings. They include several museums which are all, without exception, innovative solutions. He took the first step in this direction, with Richard Rogers, when he designed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris whose enormous success as a cultural establishment is attributable in no small measure to its architecture which still astonishes visitors today. The De Menil Collection in Houston built between 1982 and 1986 and designed by Piano is regarded as a pearl among the latest museum buildings. The Twombly Pavilion was added to this complex a few years later. Shortly afterwards, the small museum in which Brancusi‘s studio is accommodated was completed next to the Georges Pompidou Centre. The inauguration of the Beyeler Foundation in Riehen was another milestone in his successful career as a museum architect in 1997. The next event was the Cultural Centre in Noumea (New Caledonia) in the same year.
The Beyeler Foundation is the only project which Renzo Piano has so far completed in Switzerland. As it is also a museum, some observers fear that the Klee Museum in Bern might become a copy of the Riehen Museum. But the Klee Museum will differ in two essential aspects from the Museum in Riehen: through its monographic slant and the attached Paul Klee Research Centre. In any case a review of the museum buildings designed by this architect, show them all to be manifestly innovative aesthetic and technological solutions. In addition, they are all typified by great sensitivity to their landscape and urban environment. The spectrum of museum buildings and facilities built by Piano is correspondingly broad. It ranges from elegantly restrained houses in Houston and Riehen to the spectacular Amsterdam Museum of Science and Technology built in the shape of a ship.
Initial contacts with Renzo Piano showed that he was particularly interested in designing the Paul Klee Museum. The Foundation Board intends to pursue this route and is convinced that, with this architect, it will have the opportunity to build a museum which is congenial to Paul Klee‘s work and also represents an ideal solution in town planning terms. The Foundation Board will be advised by experts in architecture and museum planning.
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