Designed by Marte.Marte Architects, It takes a lot to create a building like this. The materialization of the State Gallery of Lower Austria in Krems-Stein a der Donau is based on the architects? daring vision, a determined political will, the teamwork of museum experts, craftsmen, and companies, and a dash of revolt. Krems ? concentrated atmosphere on the broad Danube River, surrounded by gentle vineyards, crisscrossed by narrow lanes and attractive squares, nourished by the soundscape of the Minorite church and the museums of the art mile, resounding to the ethnographic music of Glatt & Verkehrt, the cacophony of tourists? voices, and the avant-garde Danube Festival, and alternating tastes between Federspiel white wine and juicy apricots.
Vis-a-vis from Adolf Krischanitz?s austere Kunsthalle in the former tobacco factory, and next to Gustav Peichl?s Caricature Museum with its playful saw-tooth roof, the solitary building of the State Gallery makes an unmistakable artistic statement and joins forces with its location in a striking way. The structure, more sculpture than the building, eludes the viewers? appreciation, constantly altering its expression and shape, and resists being drawn to scale, opting instead to be a concrete manifestation of the interplay of forces. The torsion around the northwest axis of the building generates a multitude of hyperparabolic surfaces.
Photography: Roland Horn
The connecting lines of the ground and roof floors? unequal squares crea...