Lobby column with tea pots.The German Museum of Architecture (DAM) is seen as one of the best addresses in Europe for information about architecture and its history. The Cologne-based architect, Oswald Mathias Ungers, designed the DAM as a ‘house in a house’, creating the largest exhibit and a symbol of constructional art. The twin villa was rigorously gutted in 1912 and surrounded by a glass hall, giving a transparent architecture. With a strict structure and consistently kept in white, nothing distracts from the sight of the objects. 24 large-scale models from the Stone Age to the present enable visitors to the permanent exhibition, ‘From the Prehistoric Hut to the Skyscraper’, to find out more about the history of construction and settlement.
The focus is on several large temporary exhibitions, which the DAM dedicates every year to modern and contemporary architecture in Germany and abroad. Conferences, symposiums, photo exhibitions and lectures complete the programme. With a collection of 180,000 architectural plans and drawings, as well as 600 models, the DAM owns a treasure trove of exhibition pieces. Engravings, sketches, drawings and scale models offer material for exhibitions on tendencies and periods in the 20th century from Erich Mendelsohn to Frank O. Gehry, from Mies van der Rohe to the Archigram architectural group. Our reference library, which has approximately 25,000 books and magazines, is open to visitors who would like to learn more about architecture.
Deutsches Architekturmuseum
Schaumainkai (Museumsufer) 43
60596 Frankfurt am Main
http://www.frankfurt.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=5021811&_ffmpar[_id_inhalt]=177771
