Layers in Berlin: The Neues Museum

In Germany earlier this month, I visited the Neues Museum in Berlin with my girlfriend and family.
We were floored. It is an absolutely remarkable space, one that seamlessly combines the old with the new and the newly recreated. It's architect, David Chipperfield, kept two philosophies in mind when planning the rebuilding of the museum, which first opening in 1859 and was heavily damaged in WWII then left for ruin in East Berlin. He focused on the writings of John Ruskin (1819-1900), who developed strict conservation practices in Britain that were used in the treatment of ancient artifacts, and the post-war West German tradition of keeping damage visible, repairing it only minimally, and adapting it to new requirements. Conservation became a design consideration. Chipperfield wrote, " It has been our ambition to bind these two activities into a single approach, the new and old reinforcing each other, not in a desire for contrast, but in a search for continuity." 

Here's a bit of what we saw...