Restoration, Expansion and the Building Art: Contemporary Issues in the Life of Mies van der Rohe's Museum of Modern Art (New National Gallery) in Berlin

This essay is a consideration of the very sensitive issues around the restoration and extension to the modern masterpiece by Mies van der Rohe, the Neue Nationalgalerie (NNG: New National Gallery) on the Kulturforum in Berlin. The NNG is important for the City of Berlin, not least because it is the only building realised by Mies in Europe after his emigration to the USA. But the importance of the NNG goes further than that. It is an icon in the history of twentieth century art and architecture, embodying the ideals of cosmopolitan modernism. As a building of unexampled clarity and virtuosity, any architectural intervention will inevitably invite discussion of means and ends, and the appropriateness of change to the fabric and setting of the original historic monument. [GRAPHICS]