Oskar Reinhart Collection Am Römerholz

The Villa am Römerholz was built in 1915 in French Renaissance style by the architect Maurice Turrentini. Oskar Reinhart bought it in 1924 and commissioned Turrentini to add a gallery to house his art collection. Reinhart dies in 1965 and bequeaths the villa and the art to the Swiss Confederation. Following a renovation in 1970, the villa is opened as a public museum. From 1993 to 1998 Gigon & Guyer renew the villa and add three new exhibition spaces. They vary in size and proportion. From outside, the new rooms form a closed cube inserted between the residence and the gallery. The walls are clad with large prefabricates slabs of concrete. Mixed with pulverized limestone and copper, the principal materials used to build the villa, the concrete cladding will rapidly turn green. Water enriched with copper ions running down the façade will accelerate the change. Through this compressed process of patinization, the new building will make a journey in time to the meet the genius loci.