The Bern Art Museum is being modernized and expanded. A Zurich architectural firm won the competition and is planning an open building.
The Kunstmuseum Bern will be extensively renovated and expanded by 2033. After the Kunstmuseum Bern Foundation launched an architectural competition in July 2022, it is now presenting the winning project. The Zurich-based architectural firm Schmidlin Architekten was able to convince with a design that opens the museum to the Aare and Hodlerstrasse and prevailed against 147 competitors. The new building will have a sandstone facade and expand the exhibition space by 500 square meters.
Hodlerstrasse will be traffic-calmed and transformed into an art mile. During the construction work, which is scheduled to be completed by 2033, the museum will be closed for around four years. The cost of the project is 147 million francs. The foundation will cover part of the costs itself, and the rest will be paid by the Canton of Bern. The next step for those responsible is to finance the project.
