Context
"The Deutsches Museum is THE technology museum in Germany and ranks among the world's great museums. It stands for progress, curiosity, for the belief that technology improves the world."
The historical heritage of Hessen is characterised by a unique diversity. In 1946, Hessen was founded as an "art state"; however, the origins of the state are based on the merger of 4 free imperial cities, 2 princely bishoprics and 11 principalities and counties. These different influences are also reflected in the 5 cultural institutions: Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten Hessen, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Hessen, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt and the Museum Wiesbaden. The constantly growing volume of tasks, resulting for example from new properties, additional exhibition areas, different legal framework conditions or new technical procedures, presented the Historical Heritage client with both personnel and structural challenges.
Approach
The project's range of tasks included the structuring, steering, moderation and content-related support of the concept development process for the Congress Hall Building. In addition to the intensive involvement of the staff of the Deutsches Museum, the project primarily comprised a comprehensive analytical phase: in this phase, more than 60 interviews with experts, a detailed market and competition analysis, user analyses as well as numerous comparative analyses were carried out. For the best practice analysis, 12 relevant topic areas were defined and one or more international best practice examples were identified and examined for each of them. The topics included, for example, "user orientation", "third place", "science dialogue", "city laboratory", "(digital) citizen science", or "gamification".
The aim was to develop conceptual considerations based on the best and latest state of international museum and science projects. In order to concretise this, a utilisation concept including business cases as well as space and function planning was developed. In order to develop and validate various possibilities in the best possible way, different scenarios were developed, which were evaluated in terms of user needs. The subsequent detailed design of a "New Space" concept then took into account all relevant facets in detail, such as operating concept, organisation, development strategy or gastronomic requirements.
Added Value
- With the project results, a well-founded concept development is available, which serves as a basis for the realisation of the next steps (especially financing).
- Numerous contemporary and international development perspectives have been identified, which have already had an influence on the work of the Deutsches Museum, even independently of the infrastructural implementation of the concept.
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The project was implemented by Prof. Maurice Lausberg, Founder and Managing Partner.