About the architects

Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer are both graduates of ETH Zurich who established their practice together in 1989. They received a lot of international attention from their first project, the Kirchner Museum in Davos, for which they were later awarded The Daylight Award in 2012. [6]

They have worked on numerous other museums, however, in recent years have concentrated on coming up with ideas for cost-effective residential buildings.

Gigon and Guyer’s projects are identified by their unique application of form, materials and construction. They have been awarded several prizes including the Fritz Schumacher Prize and the RIBA Fellowship and are now Professors of Architecture and Construction at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. [6]

About the location

The Kirchner Museum is located in the Rhaetian Alps in Switzerland. Which means that it receives a lot of direct sunlight during the summer months as seen in the sun-path diagrams below. While in the winter, there is not much direct sunlight, there is usually a lot of snow in the surrounding areas, meaning that there is a lot of reflected daylight. There are both positives and negatives to this as it increases illuminance  values however may cause glare.

             

The Kirchner Museum was built to hold the art of the German expressionist painter, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and was a gift from the Benvenuta Family Foundation. Four architectural practices submitted drawings in August 1989 for the new Kirchner Museum. The design by Gigon and Guyer was unanimously chosen by the jury and construction began in April 1991. 

“It was put up in record time, with little money; the structure is basic prefabricated steel frame, and finishes are similarly basic: plain plastered walls and polished concrete. All of this is in striking contrast to the opulent museums and art galleries presently making their appearance all over the world.” [5]

The building itself consists of nine separate galleries which vary in size and proportion and also in levels of isolation. [5]

The architects’ design strategy stemmed from the consideration of the local conditions - climate, light and flat-roofed Davos architecture - but also of the original purpose of the building - to view and appreciate artwork.[7] 

The building is clad in glass, ranging in levels of opacity which refracts and diffuses the alpine light available to it. The design’s focus on the simplest details like the walls and lighting provides the perfect atmosphere for the vibrant and richly coloured paintings. The galleries are spaces which encourage the calm viewing of the artwork which is achieved through the uniformly diffused cool light and the views provided of the Liebeweise (Park of Love) behind it. [5] [7]

The building’s four connected glass-clad, double-height volumes rest in front of the snow-capped Swiss mountains. The diffuse daylight experienced within the building enters through the facades of each of the four translucent volumes. The light then enters the plenum area below, which lies between the roof and the galleries. The light is then filtered through the suspended glass panels into the gallery spaces. [8] [10]

However, there is also technology in place that allows photo sensors to detect too much or too little daylight. If there is too little, then artificial lighting is used which in turn, reflects off the ceiling and indirectly back into the gallery space, whereas if there is too much daylight, shades are used to obstruct it. Between the four exhibition spaces is a darker circulation area which has glazed portions carved out from floor to ceiling to create framed views of the outdoors. [5] [8] [9] 

The galleries are muted, consisting of oak parquet flooring and white gypsum board walls which allows the building itself to fade into the background while the artwork receives the most attention from viewers. [9]

The way the daylight is received in the gallery areas allows for the climate the building resides in. Annually in Davos, snow falls for 69 days of the year and aggregates up to 4684mm of snow. [12] This means that for quite a large portion of the year, this building is surrounded by snow which can reflect the sun and cause glare. However the architects, through the use of the plenum area, have combatted this issue. They have not disregarded direct sunlight either, as the large windows in the circulation areas allow for views to the outdoors while also providing light for these areas.

This building, through its clever composition and arrangement, has achieved good daylighting design.  It has been designed to adapt to the climate in terms of daylighting, it provides ambient lighting in the gallery areas, where people would be possibly more prone to eye-strain, while simultaneously providing views to the outdoors and sections of blue sky. There is also technology in place to detect and resolve when there is too much or too little lighting, which in turn, saves energy while also avoiding discomfort as going from one source of lighting to another can cause eye-strain.