munich pedestrian passageways

Neue Pinakothek (Contemporary Art Museum), renovated in 1981, in Munich by SAL

The dramatic overlay of light coming in through two different sets of windows adds to the gorgeous stairway leading up to the main floor of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. (The first level of the building is not used as a museum.) A long, somewhat narrow stairway that has radiating walls, sets up the visitor for a theatrical entrance to the museum. Then, leaving by the same stairway completes and frames the art museum visit experience. The combination of rough-cut versus smooth stone also gives this postmodern entryway another layer of texture emphasized by the natural lighting.

The Grand Parterre at the Nymphenburg Palace Park, 1664-1675, by SAL

The formal gardens at the Nymphenburg Palace Park are cloaked in mystery. We find the Germans putting a spin on the formal garden styles of France and Italy by adding some rough, wooded gardens nearby. In fact, the gardens were first designed with an Italian influence, then modified with some French designs, and finally altered at last with the English garden style.

The contrast between formal and organic, natural environments makes the experience out in the gardens nearly complete. Nonetheless, one is never left without a statue or a structural form upon which one may feast the eyes as one travels to explore the outdoors. In one area, a visitor travels over a bridge, as pictured below, to get to another destination within the gardens. 

All three modes of Bavarian Munich pedestrian travel, via stairs, a parterre, and a bridge, are quite rich. We would do well in the U.S. to think about the transition spaces between destinations. Sometimes I think, we as architects and civil/structural engineers, break up the building or a site into parts that need to be designed and then forget about the connectors in between. When in fact, the connectors may become the most elegant part of the building and/or site.

Nymphenburg Palace Park by SAL