It is his only museums building in Europe and a monument of architectural history. Johnson coined this term as a theorist along with architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock. The cubic museum building made of red Main sandstone is full of tension: Compact forms alternate with open vistas.
The massive upper part of the building rests on a structure of semicircularly closed wall panels and asymmetrically arranged half-columns. With the help of these elements, Johnson still adhered to the cuboid building with smooth surfaces typical of modernism, but at the same time introduced more sculptural building structures. The open floor plan with spaces flowing into one another creates diverse, ever-changing visual axes.
Principles such as permeability, connection and dialogue are thus emphasized. The strong reference to the outside through numerous large window fronts facing the city and the public sculpture park also conveys openness and transparency. It also allows for steady movement. With an exhibition area of about 1,sqm, the building comprises three above-ground and two underground floors.
The lower floors contain a film and lecture hall, a library open to the public, and the administration offices, which are accessed through a foyer. With its design by Philip Johnson, the Kunsthalle Bielefeld was one of the first new museum buildings in the then still young Federal Republic.
The new building was made possible in large part by a generous donation from the family of Rudolf-August Oetker, who, together with the then director Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke, was able to win Johnson for the project. Philip Johnson was a U. He served in various capacities at MoMA from as director of the department between and and as curator.
