Transforming Mathildenhöhe: A World Heritage Site

TRANSFORMING
MATHILDENHOHE
A WORLD HERITAGE SITE
Falk Jaeger
The Refurbishment
of the Exhibition Hall
by schneider+schumacher

Falk Jaeger
TRANSFORMING
MATHILDENHOHE
A WORLD
HERITAGE SITE
The Refurbishment of the
Exhibition Hall by
schneider+schumacher

CONTENTS
6 GREETING
8 PREFACE
LUDGER HÜNNEKENS
12 THE EXHIBITION HALL
AS PART OF THE
MATHILDENHÖHE ENSEMBLE:
THE PATH TOWARD UNESCO
WORLD HERITAGE STATUS
PHILIPP GUTBROD
16 THE “CITY CROWN”:
A PLACE FOR PROGRESSIVE
EXHIBITION CULTURE
22 FROM URBAN PLANNING
TO DESSERT PLATES
THE BRIEF, INTENSE LIFE
OF THE ARCHITECT
JOSEPH MARIA OLBRICH
30 THE GESAMTKUNSTWERK
AS PROJECT
THE ARTISTS’ COLONY OF
DARMSTADT

38 TO BEAUTY, TECHNOLOGY,
AND THE WORLD OF THE
INTELLECT
OLBRICH’S MULTIFUNCTIO-
NAL EXHIBITION HALL ON
ITS WAY TO BECOMING A
WHITE CUBE
48 PERMANENCE AND CHANGE
THE TREATMENT OF THE
EXHIBITION HALL OVER TIME
58 FROM JUGENDSTIL TO THE
AGE OF SUSTAINABILITY
THE CONCEPTS AND PLAN-
NING OF THE MOST RECENT
REFURBISHMENT CAMPAIGN
74 SMART AEROGEL BEADS
AND GLEAMING BRASS
PORTALS
A BUILDING FULL OF
SURPRISES
98 AN AURA ABOVE
MATHILDENHÖHE
THE EXHIBITION HALL IS
ONCE AGAIN THE RADIANT
CITY CROWN
146 “HAVE REVERENCE FOR THE
PAST AND THE COURAGE TO
FRESHLY DARE THE NEW”
THE REFURBISHMENT OF
THE EXHIBITION HALL
FROM THE ARCHITECTS’
PERSPECTIVE
151 THANKS
154 DURABILITY AND BEAUTY:
SUSTAINABILITY AS
PROGRAM
THE ARCHITECTURAL
PRACTICE OF
SCHNEIDER+SCHUMACHER
160 CHRONOLOGY
161 REFERENCES
162 VITAE
166 IMAGE CREDITS
167 IMPRINT

PREFACE

9
On July 24, 2021, UNESCO
conferred World Heritage status
on Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt:
the Artists’ Colony of Darmstadt
was deemed to be an ensemble of
“extraordinary and universal value.”
A somewhat painstaking ten-year
application process led to a
successful and marvelous result
for Darmstadt, a city of science,
scholarship, and culture.
above: Angela Dorn
(BÜNDNIS 90/DIE
GRÜNEN), then Hessian
Minister for Science
and Art, and Jochen
Partsch (BÜNDNIS 90/
DIE GRÜNEN),
Mayor of Darmstadt
until 2023, celebrate
UNESCO’s decision.
At this joyful moment, all of the significant protagonists from
the realms of politics, culture, and civic institutions were
keenly aware that the entire community would need to display
a shared commitment to conscientiously planning and
implementing the preservation and maintenance of this universal
cultural heritage and its historical substance, as well
as to its sustainable future development.
Assembled on that summer’s day on the slope
of the Ernst Ludwig House in front of Ludwig Habich’s larger
than life-size portal figures Power and Beauty, the
“Friends of Mathildenhöhe,” culture enthusiasts, professional
and volunteer advocates and supporters of the application,
political representatives, and curious onlookers
awaited the announcement of UNESCO’s decision. This act
of recognition was the reward for years of tireless work, and
the mood of celebration was exuberant.
Everyone realized that this was a very special
achievement: a World Heritage application process—at
times viewed disapprovingly with regard to the time, effort,
and financial investment required—for a large and complex
inner-city site of great significance for architectural history
had finally been brought to a successful conclusion.
We celebrated in front of the Studio Building of
the Artists’ Colony. While we were able to enjoy a moment of
satisfaction and relief outside the Ernst Ludwig House, back
then, in 2021, the Exhibition Hall had long been a site of effort,
concern, and concentration—but also of confidence.
The last major exhibition, “A House Full of Music,”
had taken place in Olbrich’s Exhibition Hall in 2012. Since
then, work has been underway to ensure that in the future
this marvelous building can be visited and experienced
anew in a more visitor-friendly way, in keeping with its status
as a listed monument and a World Heritage Site, refurbished
with a focus on ecological criteria and barrier-free

10
accessibility—and with a new café. The complete renovation
of the Exhibition Hall at Mathildenhöhe was the central
and most important step on the path toward achieving
World Heritage status. And I look back today with gratitude
and humility at the tireless and consistently perceptive
work of our project participants, which provided the decision-makers
at UNESCO with the certainty and confidence
that allowed them to confer this honor on Mathilden höhe—
despite its status as a construction site.
More than a century ago, Olbrich, Behrens,
Christiansen, and their associates laid the cornerstone for
something new and courageous. Since then, a series of innovative
pathways of great significance for cultural history
have been initiated at Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt—before
World War I, of course, with the construction of the Artists’
Colony, but also after World War II: just think of the “Darmstädter
Gespräche” (Darmstadt Talks) and the “Ferienkurse
für Neue Musik” (Darmstadt Summer Courses).
In the early 2000s at the latest, cultural and architectural
debates began to consider whether Mathildenhöhe,
with its Jugendstil architecture, represented the
emergence into modernism and, moreover, whether it constituted
the missing link of modernist architectural history,
which culminated in the Bauhaus.
However, these architectural-historical and cultural-political
debates met with little response in the context
of communal realpolitik. Rather than prioritizing the
World Heritage application and the safeguarding of this
cultural substance, it was proposed, for example, that an
ambitious new museum building be constructed at the very
heart of the Mathildenhöhe complex—only to be rejected
by municipal authorities in 2011 in response to vigorous
objections by the citizenry and experts. The year 2011 was
also the departure point for a clear cultural-political focus
on the renovation of the Exhibition Hall and an application
that would make the Artists’ Colony of Darmstadt a World
Heritage Site.
It had long been evident that the Exhibition Hall
needed to be renovated. In particular, the lack of proper
air-conditioning for the interiors made it impossible to host
further exhibitions. In 2010/2011, an initial application for
the overhaul of the ventilation technology, building services,
and a feasibility study on a refurbishment to improve
energy efficiency estimated a necessary investment of
€7 million. However, there were no funds available in the
municipal budget for 2011/2012, at a time, incidentally, when
a new coalition in Darmstadt, consisting of BÜNDNIS 90/
DIE GRÜNEN and the CDU, with myself as the new mayor,
had to begin governing with a deficit in the millions. Nonetheless,
we succeeded in getting the refurbishment and the
World Heritage application off the ground: the renovations
became possible when the city council adopted my proposal
for delaying the purchase of a prestigious new city
council building on Luisenplatz and instead reallocating
the funds to the refurbishment of the Exhibition Hall.
Launching the World Heritage application process
was among my first official acts as mayor. In the summer
of 2011, I submitted an official application to the Hessian
Ministry of Science and the Arts to place Mathildenhöhe
in Darmstadt on the “tentative list,” making it a candidate
for a German UNESCO designation—an application that
met with success in 2014 through a decision of the Conference
of the German Ministers of Culture.
What began in November 2011 with the resolution
to reallocate funds for the refurbishment continued with planning
measures in 2012, culminated in the start of construction
in 2017, and concluded with the handing over of the Exhibition
Hall to the Institut Mathildenhöhe in the summer of 2024.
More than seventy firms and twenty planning
offices worked for Darmstadt, the “City of Science,” repre­

11
sented by the Eigenbetrieb Kulturinstitute. Project management
during this difficult period was masterfully handled
by DSE Darmstädter Stadtentwicklungs GmbH. Our
architects at schneider+schumacher found answers to all
of the questions that arose, supporting our efforts with both
expert knowledge and enthusiasm.
In the end, a thorough refurbishment of the entire
building structure was accomplished in a way that complied
with the requirements of monument protection, in
particular through the intensive collaboration with the authorities
for the protection of monuments—whether on the
municipal or state level—and the invaluable expertise of an
advisory board established specifically for this purpose.
After citizen participation and discussions between citizens
and experts, altogether seven resolutions by the city council,
COVID-19-related downtimes, as well as supply chain
delays related to global crisis conditions, a total of €33 million
were ultimately invested in the Exhibition Hall—a necessary,
justified, historically aware, and future-oriented investment.
Today, we have a contemporary exhibition
building with all of the necessary safety and fire protection
equipment and excellent and reliable climate control conditions
for energy-efficient operations.
Mathildenhöhe still has a lot to tell us today: we
continue to explore along the paths laid down by the Life
Reform and Jugendstil movements, the paths of Enlightenment
and of modernity, conscious of where we come from,
and curious about the new. Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt is
a point of departure for the future and a place of new beginnings
for culture, architecture, and lifestyles. It represents
a commitment to development, innovation, and
all-embracing quality.
Jochen Partsch
Mayor of the “City of Science” Darmstadt
from 2011 until 2023

68
above: Longitudinal
section through Halls 3
and 4 and the entrance
building
below::Cross-section
through Halls 2 and 4
directly at the transition
to Hall 1 and the
café
above right:
Floor plan of the
exhibition level
below right::
Floor plan of the
plinth level with
Water Reservoir

69

SMART AEROGEL BEADS
AND GLEAMING BRASS
PORTALS
A BUILDING FULL OF
SURPRISES

75
In summer of 2017, the building site was
set up and the hoarding was erected. The
new construction measures were preceded
by the extensive dismantling of obsolete
building services installations and the
removal of harmful substances. As a rule,
unwelcome surprises caused by harmful
building materials are to be expected in
refurbishment projects—usually when it
is most inconvenient and entailing, as so
often, substantial additional costs.
The end-grain wood
floors in the halls could
not be retained due to
harmful emissions and
were replaced with new
end-grain wood blocks
with an oil-wax surface.
Contrary to original plans, for example, the still intact end-grain wooden
flooring in the exhibition halls dating from the 1970s could not be
preserved, since it had been installed using adhesives that continued
to emit harmful substances in amounts that are impermissible according
to current regulations. For this reason, the parquet flooring had to
be disposed of and replaced in conformity with the design implemented
in 1976.
Much of the damage that had to be remedied could only be
detected through the dismantling and precise examination of the building
fabric. It was not apparent beforehand, for example, that the concrete
covering of the terraces in front of the west façade had deteriorated
to the point of being irreparable.
The fact that construction work began two years later than
originally scheduled and ultimately took seven years instead of two is attributable
not only to unforeseen circumstances (none of which are particularly
surprising in renovation projects of this kind), nor to the building
services concept, which became increasingly complex in the course of
planning and implementation. A great deal of time was also occupied by
the procedure, completed successfully in 2021, that led to Mathildenhöhe
being recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Coordination of
issues related to the preservation of such a historical monument with a
specially established commission went far beyond the usual level of consultation
with the local monument protection authorities, as did their requirements,
and this too influenced the start of construction works.
Deliberations concerning approaches to the façades began
in 2014 with a material analysis that used the east façade as a sample
and examined the design systems, materiality, and color schemes of

76

77 the original construction. Coming to light beneath the thick layer of
plaster were the original wall divisions, in particular the concrete cornice
sections and the remains of a dentil frieze dating from Olbrich’s
time, but also the facing wythes from the 1970s, which had been built
using vertically perforated bricks and then plastered. These conservational
findings were incorporated into the planning of the exterior
shell and its design.
Finally, extensive areas of plaster were removed. The interim
stage—without plaster—vividly illustrated the building’s changeable
fortune during multiple renovations and façade variations. For a
brief time, the building stood before us as a monument to itself and
its own fate.
Since conventional thermal insulation could not be applied
to the external walls due to regulations concerning monument preservation,
while interior insulation was ruled out by issues related to the
building’s utilization, an innovative aerogel thermal insulation plaster
was chosen, which, at a thickness of just four centimeters, is visually
very similar to conventional plaster and made it possible to recreate
the historical relief structures and connections to roofs and windows.
The aerogel beads consist of between ninety and ninety-eight percent
above and center: When
removing the plaster
on the east façade, previously
concealed concrete
profiles dating
from the construction
period were revealed.
below: The newly
applied plaster brings
the historical design
elements back to life.
air; its thermal transmittance value corresponds to that of a normal insulation
layer with double the thickness.
As a rule, the surface of the moisture-sensitive insulation
material was protected with four millimeters of embedding mortar and
three millimeters of finishing plaster. In accordance with the new design
for the wall divisions of the halls, the final layer was applied in two
different granulations, a coarser one for recessed relief areas and a
finer one for raised surfaces.
A variety of different plaster textures and thicknesses were
used across the façade surfaces due to their heterogeneous substrates
and varying wall thicknesses and requirements.
The architects designed more than forty different plastering
details. A silicate roll-on paint ensures weatherproofing of the new
exterior skin. The resultant coating is mineral throughout, diffusion-open,
and resistant to moisture and mold.
Only a single specialist firm was capable of handling the
new material and proved eligible for executing the complex plastering
system. Since the aerogel thermal insulation plaster was a genuinely
novel material, for which the field of monument preservation had very
little experience, it proved necessary to create numerous samples beforehand
in order to precisely determine the individual work stages.
For the reconstruction of the terraces, the exterior stairs had
to be completely dismantled and rebuilt. An issue here was the height
of the terrace balustrades, which were too low to satisfy Hessian building
regulations. It proved possible, however, to adopt the calculation
method specified by the state building regulations of Baden-Württemberg,
according to which the width and depth of the balustrades can be
added together in order to arrive at the required value.
Over time, the main portal, its frame and reveals ennobled
with Carrara marble, had been altered a number of times. The change
of the doors had been undertaken at the expense of the interior embrasure.
The frame was painstakingly restored and the missing interior
embrasure supplemented with new Carrara marble. The existing
revolving door was replaced by a new double door system with vestibule.
The latticework door dating from the nineteen-seventies, with

78
above: The east facade,
freed from the plaster
applied in the 1970s
and restored to its original
state, with the
bricked-up windows
below: For the façades
of Halls 1 and 3, the
structure was restored
to recall Olbrich’s first
project design with
blind windows from the
1970s. The side windows
of connecting
Hall 2 were reopened.

79 its striking turquoise tone and golden accents, was carefully restored
and reinstalled.
In the vestibule, after the partial dismantling of the gal leries,
the gilded cleats of the ceiling beams and the layer of paint on the narrow
barrel vaults between the beams were preserved throughout the
entire construction period.
The elements that were converted or installed inside the
building have long vanished beneath concealing surfaces. Given the
necessity for visual restraint in the exhibition halls, it was important
that installations for heating, ventilation, and illumination be hidden
from view. In such instances, underfloor heating or wall surface heating
seemed to be viable options. The first proved unfeasible due to installation
heights, partly because it had long been decided that the
end-grain wooden flooring would be preserved. In museums, the use
of walls as collector surfaces is ruled out in the many places where exhibits
are mounted using dowels. This left only those wall surfaces not
used for hanging artworks and the ceilings eligible for thermal component
activation. Air intake was installed in the ceiling area. The crawlspaces
under the halls, which originally served to conduct warm air,
offered sufficient space for the installation of new exhaust air ducts.
Olbrich had planned top-lighting for Halls 1 and 3. Daylight
penetrates through glass roofs into the attic and then through luminous
ceilings into the exhibition halls. Both the original roof structure
and the barrel structures of the luminous ceilings were preserved. All
that was needed was to install new glazing on both levels. While this
sounds simple enough, the insulation values currently required made
it a challenge. The architects commissioned a thermal simulation in
order to determine which type of glass would be necessary and possible
in which location in order to achieve the necessary values. It
proved impossible to use triple glazing for the outer roof membrane,
since this would have been too heavy; used instead were double-glazed
panels with translucent thermal insulation in the cavity in the form of
a capillary panel encased in two glass fiber mats. The mats ensure the
emission of uniform scattered light. An additional level of UV film (museum
film) filters out radiation with wavelengths below 390 nanometers.
In the luminous ceiling as well, high-performance satin-finished glazing
designed to shield heat and radiation reduce heat loss and heat input
to the required degree. Given the deformations and minimal dimensional
tolerance of the original framework, the new glazing of the luminous
ceilings proved complicated as well. The numerous individual panes
were typified using modern parametric planning tools and then fabricated
for a correct fit.
left: Exemplary structure
of the aerogel thermal
insulation plaster
of HASIT with Masonry
(1), Existing Brick
Masonry (2), Plaster
Base Preparations (3),
Insulating Plaster
35mm (4), Surface
Stabilization (5),
Reinforcing Layer (6),
Plaster Base (7), Finishing
Render (8) and
Mineral Coating (9)
right: Comparison of
the final energy demand
according to DIN V
18599 before (left) and
after the refurbishment
(right), broken down
into cooling (1), ventilation
(2), lighting (3)
and heating (4)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
2
3
4
1.400.000
1.200.000
1.000.000
800.000
600.000
400.000
200.000
0

Control of the illumination with top-lighting is achieved in
the attic space between the glass roof and the luminous ceiling. Introduced
during the nineteen-seventies, a black-out system continues to
control the natural incident light, which can be supplemented or replaced
by artificial light as needed.
When the general renovation of the Exhibition Hall was initiated,
it was initially only a matter of energy-related refurbishment.
The results were impressive. Energy requirements, calculated in accordance
with DIN V 18599, were reduced from 1,270,000 kilowatt hours
annually to just 520,000, with the reduction in heating demand accounting
for the greatest part of the cost savings.
Even after a museum building is complete and has received
approval, it is still a long way before exhibitions can be organized and
the doors are opened to the public. To begin with, for example, the air
conditioning system must be “broken in.” During a preparatory period
lasting weeks or even months, sensors must be adjusted, control units
calibrated, and test measurements conducted, until the equipment is
able to maintain the stipulated temperature and humidity levels reliably,
independently of the weather or the season. Which does not mean
that you can just sit back and relax once regular operations have commenced:
it still remains to factor in the impact of the public, with its
direct influence on temperature and moisture levels. Generally speaking,
it takes up to two years before a museum’s air conditioning system
has been properly adjusted. Only then do the final members of the
project team finally take their leave.
80
82/83: After the demolition
of the connecting
building from 1976, a
new exposed concrete
roof now connects the
Wedding Tower with
Hall 3.
84/85: The narrow offices
under the terrace
in front of the reservoir
were converted into the
café’s dining area.
86/87: Reconstruction
of the ceiling cut-out in
the entrance hall to its
original size. The barrel
ceiling, which had
already been meticulously
restored shortly
before the comprehensive
refurbishment, is
the only surface that
was not redone.
88/89: Hall 4 during
the refurbishment. The
saw-tooth roof construction
was dismantled
down to the supporting
steel skeleton.
92/93: Hall 1, view to
the west after deconstruction.
The gallery
veranda from 1974
above the main
entrance, which was
part of the former
café in the foyer, was
dismantled, and the
ceiling geometry was
restored based on the
existing construction.
94/95: The steel roof
structure from the
construction period
was preserved and renovated.
The roof surface
and the glass barrels
above the halls were
fitted with new glazing.
96: Base of the Water
Reservoir in the depot
of the workshop building
97: The halls are ventilated,
heated and
cooled via decentralized,
densely packed
energy supply units.
90/91: Walls and
ceilings of Hall 4 were
newly clad, and the
north-facing saw-tooth
roof was reglazed.

81
above: East façade of
Hall 3, freed from plaster,
showing the different
layers and traces of
time
below: The new plaster
façade on the east side
of Hall 3

107

167
IMPRINT
© 2024 by ovis Verlag
An imprint of Walter de Gruyter
GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Texts by kind permission of the
authors.
Pictures by kind permission of
the photographers/holders of the
picture rights.
All rights reserved.
Cover: Jörg Hempel
Design and setting:
Katrin Schmitt-Tegge
sans serif, Berlin
Editorial team schneider+schumacher:
Jessica Witan, Erec Lützkendorf
Special thanks to Nora Mohr from
the Institut Mathildenhöhe for her
help.
Project coordination ovis Verlag:
Franziska Schüffler
Translation: Ian Pepper
Copy editing: Bianca Murphy
Production: Susanne Rösler
Lithography: Pixelstorm
Litho & Digital Imaging, Wien
Printed in the European Union
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