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Erich Kästner Museum Dresden
Das mobile interaktive micromuseum ®
The architectural concept: communication, multimedia, mobility, ergonomics and the economical usage of limited resources - major themes for the 21st century. The world´s first mobile interactive micromuseum® is a modern piece of architecture, which mirrors the modern and many sided personality of the internationally famous author Erich Kästner, a writer of children's books, film author, journalist, poet, playwright; for example Baron Münchhausen, Emil and the Detectives. The museum presents Kästner´s life and works based on four main themes: Kästner, a German from Saxony; Kästner, a Reluctant Outsider; Kästner´s Utopia – the Child Inside; Kästner and the Media.
The museum combines architecture, art, sculpture and furniture in one. It works with literature and new forms of communication and education: It functions using the excitement and curiosity awakened by a playful game of hide and seek with information, it is an architectural interpretation of the unending "rooms" of a man and his work, where every visitor can and must find their own way, their own answers to their own questions. The environment played a vital role in the conception of the museum and continues to play a vital role in its day-to-day running. The multimedia age requires us to re-interpret the "less is more" theory – modern technology and design enable us to exhibit as much in one room as many museums do in several larger rooms. In contrast with the vast size and never-ending maze of rooms in traditional museums, the micromuseum houses a maximum amount of material with a minimal impact on the environment, just like the progress from early room-filling mainframes to modern palmtop computers. With its minimal running costs, the museum is unrivalled in its commitment to optimal use of scarce resources.
A house, a time machine, a Trojan horse
In the age of new media, traditional concepts must be questioned: How big is a house? What is a house? The Erich Kästner Museum is a self-sufficient little big house. It combines traditional museological elements and modern multimedia technology. Its potential lies in its smallness and modular building block character. A multimedia nucleus with exhibits, computer, video, audio, library and 13 mobile towers with drawers for objects, not only to see but to touch and remove, form a cuboid that measures 3 m x 2 m x 1,2 m when closed. An organism, opening, closing, moving, where inside becomes outside, where everything becomes a window or a door to an unending world of rooms. It combines physical slowness with multimedial speed. Each element is self-sufficient. When closed, the Kern, building block 1, and the 13 towers form a whole which is the 15th element. One could say the museum is a lifesize toy or puzzle for children and adults which enables them to touch, ask, move, do, learn and play. Through the use of internet and the creation of a virtual museum, which by nature of the architectural design can become an identical twin of the physical museum, virtual visitors all over the world can enter the museum in Dresden. Situated in the house of Kästner´s rich uncle he made memorable in his famous book "Als ich ein kleiner Junge war" this house-in-a-house successfully bridges modernity and tradition in the heart of Dresden. Since opening its doors to the public in February 2000, the museum has been attracting thousands of people from all over the world.
The museum enjoys the advantage of its architectural growth, the towers being like satellites that are added to the nucleus over time as its exhibition material grows and in accordance with the ongoing research on the life and work of Erich Kästner. To date, 6 of the 13 planned columns have been added to the Kern.
Press Release Feb. 2003
Micromuseum ® Erich Kästner
"Living things never stop evolving"
"Birthday present": Erich Kästner Museum in Dresden is 3 years old - museum's spiritus rector receives exhibition award
News
The 23rd of February this year marks Erich Kästner's 104th birthday. The Erich Kästner Museum in Dresden's Villa Augustin was opened three years ago to the day. This February Ruairí O'Brien, the creator and architect of the museum, was awarded the first ever German National Exhibition Prize of the Heinz and Brigitte Schirnig Culture Foundation.
The Award
Experts in the fields of design, museology and from German culture and bank foundations, e.g. Dr. Heinz Schirnig as the president of the board of trustees of the hbs Culture Foundation, were unanimous in their decision to honour the project of the Irish artist and architect. Every two years, the award will be presented to a young exhibition curator for particular quality, creativity and originality.
What is special about the Erich Kästner Museum? The 40 year-old architect, Ruairí O´Brien, has created a young, dynamic museum atmosphere. The micromusuem ® brand he developed thrives on minimalism and multi-functionality. It forms an interface between architecture, art, sculpture and commodities. He has designed an autonomous total work of art, an information sculpture - a unique mobile interactive tool. The concept works. To date, almost 25,000 people from all over the world have visited the museum. In addition to the real museum, a 1:1 virtual museum to Erich Kästner is being developed, which makes the knowledge housed in the museum available to a global community. Mobility and functionality down to the last detail.
"... In its aim to be small but big, this museum sets new standards. It was launched at a time when many museum experts think that exhibitions only received attention when superlatives are offered... Ruairí O´Brien relies on people's enjoyment of discovery and learning. In his little museum he gives visitors something which seems to be extremely old-fashioned: the opportunity to learn, discover, educate themselves... He accepts the tempo of modern times and simultaneously offers the charm of slowness. Individuality and distinct visitor requirements are taken seriously in this small but large museum..."
(from the eulogy of Dr. Judith Oexle, state archaeologist, museum director)
"... Architecture and literature: That would be an interesting topic, if it hadn't already been made into one -
that is, in the Kästner Museum. It is clearly the work of an educator/ "Didaktiker": an educator who teaches through the medium of the museum. This isn't a museum for gathering dust, it's built to be touched; not to be gaped at, but to be marvelled at; not to be ticked off, but to click into. From link to link..."
(From the opening speech of Prof. Volker Ladenthin, president of the Erich Kästner Society, Munich e.V. at the award ceremony on 05/02/2003)
The prize winner, Ruairí O´Brien, summed up the museum's concept as follows: "The structure, which is made up of different modules and parts of a collage is like a human life, implies an organic process, can be added to but is never perfect and never ceases evolving."
(www.erich-kaestner-museum.de)
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