Vintage Himmelblau.

The imposing Munich Academy of Fine Art, which lies next to the Bavarian Triumphal Arch, is now complemented by a colossal (and long awaited) new extension. Coop Himmelb(l)au have succeeded in packing in an impressive building volume, almost as high as the old academy. It is a kind of Deconstructivist reaction to the narrow urban fabric of the surrounding quarter; boxes protrude and recess, opening up unexpected vistas. The basic configuration is a U-shape in which the courtyard is covered and closed by enormous frames leaning--like a double facade--against the south-facing entrance. Seen from this angle, the building provokes an immediate reaction of domineering scale and proportion. In comparison, the neighbouring Neo-Classical facade seems delicate and light. Gigantic hands seem to have shuffled the new building, but not to its apparent advantage. Given the fact that the extension merely houses extra studio space, a canteen, offices and a guest suite for visiting artists, it is a grandiloquent gesture at the cost of a mere [euro]20m.

However, the story goes back 13 years when the Viennese provcateurs won the original competition in 1992. Though they immediately began designing, funding was not in place until 2001. As the years rolled by the building became stuck in a bureaucratic and design limbo. Today, the architecture looks somewhat dated and clumsy in its handling of detail. (The columns which support the bridges spanning the atrium being a case in point.) In juggling the artfully deconstructed volumes, architects and engineers are heavyhanded with the structure, which is ostentatiously manifested throughout the building. The shock of the slightly dated is made even more acute as quite nearby, Coop Himmelb(l)au's other Munich project, BMW-Welt (AR June 2005) is nearing completion. Perhaps this prompted the former rector of the Academy to hail the new extension as a 'Spatlese (late vintage) of Deconstruction'? Clearly a taste of a bygone age.

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