The Glass House

Competition Kommandantenvilla KZ Sachsenburg

2021 we took part in the competition for the redesign of the “Kommandantenvilla” in the memorial site KZ Sachsenburg with this contribution.

Short concept / Explanation

At the beginning of the day, the prisoners of the camp were brought to the central yard, the roll call square. From there, the prisoners had an unobstructed view of the commandant’s house, where he lived with his family. And he had a view of the prisoners lining up in the yard from his house. In the post-war years, this line of sight was blocked by the construction of another garage between the commandant’s house and the square. In our contribution we made two proposals.

1. The installation of a billboard with the image of the Commandant’s House restores the visual connection between the house and the square.

2. The initiators of the competition stated that the Commandant’s House should be demolished up to the height of the base and the basement of the house should be filled in. Our proposal was to replace the commandant’s house with a glass house that would reflect the shape and volume of the original. This glass house was to be used for growing plants, fruits, and vegetables and could serve as a meeting, learning, and activity space for youth.

Competition entry together with Susan Donath

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Garden Post Bad Mukau

Exhibition of Prince Pueckler in England, Bad Muskau

Modular exhibition system as a micro-architectural implantation for the revival of historical inventory

Our modular exhibition system offers the visitor the opportunity to discover the creative and pragmatic development process of the unique Muskauer Park by means of the correspondence between Prince Hermann von Pueckler during his trip to England/Ireland in 1826-28 and Princess Lucie.
Organic growth as a central element in garden art as well as the fragmentary, perfection and imperfection associated with it, the liveliness as an ongoing process of change and development are universal themes that find expression in this exhibition sculpture. In a unique spatially-autonomous quality, the modular object made of maple wood condenses the individual thematic areas: the three protagonists Prince Pueckler, his wife Lucie and Rehder, the gardener have their say; the garden itself as well as the planned buildings.

By means of a color concept, the visitor finds orientation in terms of content and can immerse himself in the themes according to his own interests. On a visual as well as content level, he is equally drawn from the outside to the inside by the object, which is in dialogue with the surrounding interior and exterior space. The creative process within the design and structure of the microarchitectural implantation in the New Palace, combined with the creative process of Pueckler’s unique horticultural design in Muskau, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, forms a singular total artistic exhibition experience for the visitor. In the interplay of architecture and exhibition theme, the organic growth of an idea, the landscape garden, becomes comprehensible.

Competition: 1st place

Services: Planning HOAI Lph. 1-9, exhibition design and graphics

Client: Foundation Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau New Palace, Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau 2005

Erich Kaestner Museum Dresden

Museum/exhibition architecture, color concept, space program, reconstruction of the museum building, event and administration areas

The micromuseum®, a modern piece of architecture, artwork and interactive working tool developed by Ruairí O’Brien, reflects the multifaceted personality and work of the world-famous children’s book author, poet, media man and journalist Erich Kaestner.

The careful insertion of a new “heart” into the listed Villa Augustin on Albertplatz, the former home of Kaestner’s uncle, by means of a micro-architectural implantation of a house into the house -consisting of a multimedia core and 13 mobile life-size information modules- creates a lively bridge between past, present and future as well as all generations. By examining and operating the life-size building blocks as well as the multimedia components, the visitor gains access to the exhibition content and provides insights into the complex Erich Kaestner world. Into which he can gain insights on a self-directed route and at his own pace.

Services: Museum concept, planning HOAI Lph.1-9, exhibition design and graphics
Client: Förderverein für das Erich Kästner Museum Dresden

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The interactive journey of discovery

In Dresden’s Neustadt, where Erich Kaestner lived from 1899 to 1917, the concept of a “walk-in treasure chest” was staged by Ruairi O’Brien. While the conventional museum usually only invites its guests to contemplate, the visitor of the interactive micromuseum has to become active himself.
When the visitor enters the museum at Antonstr. 1, he stands directly in front of an elegant object that stands two meters high, three meters long and 1.2 meters wide. This object is the museum itself, it is a work of art in itself, which the visitor must examine and operate in order to access the information it contains. Like building blocks, a dozen individual parts can be detached, the interior parts of which turn out to be well-stocked bookshelves, drawers that can be pulled open, and display cases for photographs and personal objects. A walk-in core is installed in the center of the room, a kind of multimedia time machine. In addition to books and other original objects, the Kaestner researcher will find audio and video technology as well as a work station in the core, by means of which the latest information on Erich Kaestner can be accessed in several languages.
Through architectural work, Ruairi O’Brien illustrates and unites several real spaces from Kaestner’s life in one place. The use of the virtual space achieves the greatest possible audience impact while at the same time providing ecological benefits by saving movement.

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The architectural concept

Through the resource-saving, micro-architectural implantation, Ruairi O’Brien’s museum concept not only revitalized authentic old building fabric, but at the same time made an important urban area in the middle of Dresden’s Neustadt accessible to the public for the first time.
This living preservation of historical buildings fulfills the claim of preserving the historical and transporting it into the present and future by bringing the existing identity (old building structure) to fruition and placing it in harmony with the new (current content and functionality).
The individual visitor is invited to discover the life-size museum building blocks according to his or her own mood and individual pace and to “look behind” them, to delve into individual objects. Each of these building blocks is an independent object that, together with the other elements, in turn forms a self-sufficient whole.

SKD Museum Lab

Interactive Museum Project for the Dresden State Art Collections

In order to make it possible for students of different ages to actively experience how a museum collection is created, architect Ruairí O’Brien developed the “Museum Lab” as an extracurricular learning opportunity for students on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Dresden State Art Collections in 2010.

Extracurricular learning venues have complemented and extended primary instruction in schools since the beginning of the reform education movements. As important mediators of cultural education, museums represent special out-of-school learning venues. To enable students of different ages to actively experience how a museum collection is created, Ruairí O’Brien developed the “Museum Lab” as an extracurricular learning opportunity for students on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the Dresden State Art Collections in 2010.

The centerpiece: an interactive sculpture

The centerpiece of this special learning environment is an interactive sculpture designed by O’Brien, which served as an experimental collection and presentation surface. In five successive workshops, different groups of students dealt with the themes of “Creation,” “Desire,” “Inquisitiveness,” “Confrontation,” and “Radiance,” thus working through the developmental stages of a museum collection in a playful, compressed form.

Learning big things on a small scale

Each group first dealt with the results of the previous group’s work and then worked on them further. The students experienced “in fast motion” what it means to create a complete work over several generations and to deal responsibly with cultural heritage. This gave them a playful introduction to the institution of museums and allowed them to reflect on the role and significance that museums have for themselves and for society.

More info at: www.skd-museumslabor.blogspot.de

Hologram Machine

Holographic Exhibition Module for the German Hygiene Museum, Dresden

The architectural concept conveys the history of the building in the mirror of its leading objects. The human being as a body that can be disassembled and made transparent is compared to architecture and inspired by it (structural representation of skin, skeleton, organs; proportions, symmetry / asymmetry etc.). The wholeness of the human body, assembled from individual parts, corresponds to the interplay of architectural modules, each of which, as a microarchitectural, self-sufficient element, at the same time forms a part of the whole. A first module, the architectural installation “Winged Altar” for the “Anima” returning from EXPO 2000, was already on display at the German Hygiene Museum.

Client: German Hygiene Museum Foundation