Architectural Competition – Museum Folkwang
New Building
In August, 2006, Prof. h.c. mult. Berthold Beitz, Chairman of the Board of Trusteees of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung announced that the foundation, as sole patron, would finance a new building for the Museum Folkwang. The City of Essen therefore organized an international architecture competition which, after an open application procedure, twelve German and Foreign architecture firms were selected to participate in.

Adjaye/Associates, London (pre-invited)
Bolles + Wilson, Münster
Architekten Brüning Klapp Rein, Essen
David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin/London
Gigon Guyer Architekten, Zurich (pre-invited)
Zaha Hadid Architects, London
Himer& Sattler u. Albrecht, Berlin/Munich
Konigs Architekten, Cologne
MVRDV, Rotterdam
SANAA, Tokyo (pre-invited)

The competition and pre-selection were managed by
The jury, chaired by Prof. Eckhard Gerber, in its meeting of February 13th, 2007, awarded three prizes and two acknowledgements, with the recommendation that the first and second prize winner be asked to revise their propositions:

1st prize      David Chipperfield Architects
2nd prize     Adjaye/ Associates, London
3rd prize       Gigon Guyer Architekten, Zurich
Acknowledgement      Zaha Hadid Architects, London
Acknowledgement      Staab Architekten, Berlin

In their meeting of March 13th, 2007, the jury examined the revised propositions. They were unanimous in declaring David Chipperfield winner and recommended the Krupp-Stiftung to accept this proposition. Herr Prof. Beitz accepted this recommendation in the name of the Krupp-Stiftung.  Construction began in autumn 2007 and was completed in autumn 2009. The new building was built by Neubau Museum Folkwang Essen GmbH, a company of the Wolff Group. It was opened to the public at the beginning of 2010, when Essen and the Ruhr Area became European Capital of Culture.

The Museum Folkwang is facing one of the greatest developments of its more than one hundred year history. Directly bordering the old building (building A), completed in 1960, the museum is gaining a new building to replace the current Building B. The old building, one of the prettiest German museum buildings, will remain as an independent building and form an integral part of the new museum.