Competition extension to the Historical Museum in Bern. The distinguishing characteristics of the Museum Island as a whole are its transversing wings and its courtyards which open towards the flanking streets (Helvetiastrasse and Bernastrasse). The individual wings seem to be spanned between the two streets. This distinction is characteristic to this day for the grammer school, the Regional Museum and the Natural History Museum. Only the Historical Museum veers one-sidedly to the Bernastrasse. With the new extension the transverse accent is extended and the principle of an applied building standard is completed. Thus the extension building does justice to the long-term development of the Museum Island in that it plays out the spacial elements of the existing constellation. Because the existing arrangement (with the asymmetrical disposition of its plans), the spatial development and the numerous towers and bay windows are all already very turbulent, the new building abstained from a turbulent volumetry in its cubic formation. The intention was to create a respectful contrast to the historic building and to make the internal changes in the museum intelligible in an up-to-date language. Viewed from the Helvetia Square the new extension pushes itself out from behind the palace-like museum building due to its transverse arrangement and claims a marked presence on the Helvetiastrasse. In this way the new building naturally faces the city as much as possible.This positioning creates precise external spaces. The eastern arcade courtyard is clearly expressed between the purely decorative wall pierced by pointed arches and the new building, and, corresponding to the long-term building pattern of the Museum Island, faces the Helvetia Street. The earth embankment is in this way retained.

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