Berlin Critics call for pause on 'climate killer' art museum project

A vast modern art museum under construction in Berlin has been castigated by conservation experts and architecture critics for its poor environmental credentials as the energy crisis intensifies scrutiny of the efficiency of new buildings.

- Kate Connolly

The Museum of the 20th Century, designed by the Swiss star architects Herzog & de Meuron, is intended to propel the German capital into the top tier of world cities for modern art, competing with New York's Moma and London's Tate Modern.

Variously nicknamed "the barn" and "the beer tent" due to its sprawling A-frame shape and low-hanging roof, the museum was hailed as a "building of the future" when its plans were made public.

The building, part of a revamp of Berlin's museum landscape, will allow artworks that do not fit inside the Neue Nationalgalerie to be brought out of long-term storage.

However, in recent months there has been growing criticism of its main construction material, concrete - one of the highest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions - and of its open and transparent internal structure, which will require a sophisticated ventilation system to maintain temperature and humidity levels.

Stefan Simon, a leading expert in conservation science and a proponent of "ecological museums", has called the museum a "climate killer", a "structural nightmare" in terms of its upkeep and running costs, and a big "step in the wrong direction" that will fail to meet EU climate neutrality goals.