Giorgio Grassi

The Spreeinsel, or 'Spree Island', became the representative seat of power of the German Empire on its southern side, and throughout the 19th century its northern end was transformed into a privileged cultural site: the Altes Museum by Karl Friedrich Schinkel was the first of the buildings in the complex; later, August Stuler, a disciple of the former, designed the Nationalgalerie and the Neues Museum behind his master's building, establishing an arrangement plan for all the museums. In 1904 the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, today the Bode Museum, was built on the northern tip of the island, and in 1906-1907 the Pergamon Museum, which, separated by the railroad tracks, broke the careful plan conceived by Stüler.

After the fall of the Wall, the Spreeinsel - which had been left on the eastern side - has been the subject of all kinds of projects and proposals. For the moment, however, only those referring to the so-called Museuminsel have materialized, through a restricted competition called in 1994 for the definitive remodeling of the site, the reconstruction of the north wing of the Neues Museum and the extension of the cultural offer by means of a new pavilion...[+]