Museum Bern - Zentrum Paul Klee

Today Paul Klee, who was also a musician, teacher and poet, ranks as one of the 20th century’s most significant artists. For this centre of excellence on all matters relating to Paul Klee a traditional museum is not what the renowned, award-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano had in mind.

Renzo Piano's in-depth involvement with the complex project commission and the terrain on the eastern outskirts of Bern gave him the idea of creating a spacious island of green from which the architecture would emerge in the form of three undulating waves.

The three hills of steel and glass are divided up into a programmatic structure characterised by an interdisciplinary approach.

Indeed, besides generous exhibition space, the premises also include a state-of-the-art music and performance venue for the Centre’s own programs and for guest ensembles, a children’s museum for anyone aged 4 and over keen to gain access to art through their own creative output, a multifunctional promenade with a multitude of communication installations, and plenary halls and seminar rooms with the very latest infrastructure for staging national and international conventions.

The fine arts, music, theatre, dance, literature, art science and art mediation will therefore not merely co-exist side by side; they are to give rise to new forms of expression through a form of artistic cross-pollination – for the sole benefit of the public’s enjoyment.