INTERVIEW

Berlin’s Museuminsel is an archipelago of culture situated right in the heart of the city. Built beside the river Spree, the Museuminsel, or Museum Island, comprises five heritage buildings, each of which is home to some of the most exclusive works of art in the world. The oldest structure here, the Altes Museum (Old Museum), dates back to 1830, while the newest, the Pergamonmuseum, was inaugurated exactly a hundred years later, in 1930. As of now, the Museum Island is at the centre of what could well be one of the biggest and most ambitious public works project dedicated to cultural infrastructure globally.

The Masterplan Museuminsel involves thorough restoration work on all the existing buildings, as well as new construction projects to further expand the size of the complex. A new underground walkway is also being built here with a view to interconnecting four of the five main buildings of this complex, to provide easy access to visitors. Estimated costs for this publicly funded project run into hundreds of millions of Euros, if not more. But what’s really astonishing is the projected timeline for the work—which stretches not into years but spans whole decades. This kind of dedication to cultural projects is rarely seen in this day and age, and maybe other world capitals, including Delhi, could take a cue from Berlin and learn a lesson or two about getting their cultural houses in order.

To get a better sense of the Masterplan Museuminsel, Guardian 20 spoke to Dr Ralf Nitschke, head of construction planning for the General Directorate of the National Museums in Berlin (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation).

Q. To begin with, could you give us a brief overview of the Masterplan Museuminsel? What exactly does it entail? A.

Masterplan Museumsinsel mainly involves the reconstruction of the five ancient museum buildings on this island in the river Spree, in the city center of Berlin. But there are two other important points involved: first of all, a new central entrance building is being built in the complex, since we want to reassign most space in the old buildings to the exhibition areas, and we are trying to shift most of the basic functions, like ticketing, cafes etc. to this new building, which will become the central entrance for all collections on Museumsinsel. However, the old buildings will still retain their original entrances and small ticket counters. The second major point of the Masterplan is the construction of the Archeological Promenade: like an underground passage, it will be connecting four of the five buildings in the future.

Q. In which year was the master plan first intro- duced? And why did this complex need an infrastructural upgrade on this ambitious a scale? A.

The plan was introduced in 1999. At that point, nearly all the five buildings here were in a poor condition and needed architectural upgrades. Also, the weather and the climate had taken their toll, and these issues needed addressing. The whole Museum Island is an old structure—there are some 100 years between the Altes Museum, designed by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and the Pergamonmuseum, by Alfred Messel. Today, between Messel’s building and the new one designed by David Chipperfield, scheduled to open in 2019, there will be another 100 years. So with this master plan, our aim is to make the conditions here perfect – both for the artworks housed here and for the thousands of visitors who come to Museum Island every day.

Q. What’s the deadline for this master plan? When can we expect the overall upgrade project to end? A.

This is difficult to answer. The reconstruction of Pergamonmuseum, for example, is a project which is divided into two phases. At this moment, the museum’s northern wing is under reconstruction, while the southern wing is still open for visitors. We hope to reopen the northern wing in 2024. Afterwards, we will start to reconstruct the southern wing, which again will take a couple of years. After this, we can start to reconstruct the Altes Museum. So you can imagine that the finishing line is still some years away.

Q. More like some decades away. A.

Yes. Our next landmark is the opening of the JamesSimon-Galerie in 2019. Followed by the reopening of the Pergamonmuseum in 2024.

Q. So there is no fixed deadline at all? A.

No. Masterplan Muse-