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Architects: HMGB Architects
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Photographs:Christoph Rokitta
Text description provided by the architects. Berlin practice HMGB architects have designed the architecture for the exhibition '800 years of Crosiers' in the Museum Bentlage Monastery in Rheine, Germany
The Crosiers are a roman catholic religious order, and Bentlage used to be one of its monasteries.
The design challenge was threefold: to find a contemporary design language to exhibit century-old artefacts in equally old spaces, to group the numerous and very diverse exhibits into thematic units, and to create a spatial narrative consistent with the curators' intentions.
The design consists of a family of custom-built exhibition display cabinets which are combined into variable configurations and form 'cabinet sculptures'. They inhabit the very diverse exhibition spaces which range from spartan monk cells to large and grandiose assembly rooms. Their shape, colour and arrangement respond to the different rooms' qualities and create a spatial narrative which guides visitors.
Where the exhibition calls for rest and contemplation, the 'cabinet sculptures' act as furniture providing those.
