Zentrum Paul Klee

About the building

On the eastern edge of Bern, right next to the motorway, three hills of steel and glass lie in the landscape. The building of the Zentrum Paul Klee is the work of the Italian architect Renzo Piano, who received the commission directly. Close by is the Schosshalde cemetery with the painter's grave.

Paul Klee (1879–1940) spent a good half of his life in Bern. The institution was endowed by the surgeon Maurice Edmond Müller. In 1997 Livia Klee-Meyer, the painter's daughter-in-law, donated close to 690 works to the city and the canton. With further gifts and loans from the family, the Paul Klee Foundation and private collections, about 4,000 paintings, watercolours and drawings came together, roughly 40 percent of his entire output. Before that, his estate had been kept at the Kunstmuseum Bern. In 1998 the Schöngrün site was chosen, construction began on 15 October 2001, and the centre opened on 20 June 2005.

Each of the three hills has its own function. The northern one houses the Creaviva children's museum, an auditorium for concerts and readings, and seminar rooms. The middle one contains the exhibition galleries; figures for their area range from 1,800 square metres (Wikipedia) to about 2,400 square metres (Zentrum Paul Klee). The southern hill holds administration, research, the library and the archive. The hills are linked by a freely accessible museum street running parallel to the motorway, which Piano deliberately included in the design. The art stores lie in the basements under a field at the back.

A few figures give a sense of scale: the middle hill is 12 metres high, and the glass front is 150 metres long and up to 19 metres high. About 1,100 tonnes of steel girders and 10,000 cubic metres of concrete were used, and the building cost 125 million francs. Next to the new building stands the older Villa Schöngrün with a restaurant and conference rooms. The centre is cultural property of national importance.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Zentrum Paul Klee: Architektur · Wikipedia (de): Zentrum Paul Klee · Wikipedia (en): Zentrum Paul Klee · Wikidata: Q191189