hg merz architekten museumsgestalter was established in Stuttgart, south-west Germany, in 1981. A second office was opened in Berlin in 1993. The company has about 70 employees including architects, interior desig- ner, graphic artists and cultural scientists. While the Stuttgart team focuses on museum and exhibition design – e.g. Mercedes-Benz Museum, Porsche Museum and Ruhr Museum –, including research and visual communication, the work of the Berlin team centres on the renovation and enhancement of historical buildings. Our approach is characterised by a high degree of respect for both the buildings and the exhibits. We are dedicated to careful, considered conservation and improvement, as borne out by three major projects in the heart of Berlin: the Old National Gallery (Alte Nationalgalerie), the State Library (Staatsbibliothek) and the State Opera (Staatsoper).
We believe in restoring the form and original spirit to old buildings, freeing them of any changes and embellishments, revealing their true character, and overcoming any age-related issues. We strive to create a symbiosis and synthesis between the old and the new. We apply the same philosophy – of evoking the aura of days gone by and the shape of the future – to our museum and exhibition design work. Arranging exhibits and showing their context and how they relate to each another is our key objective.
We believe that the method of presentation should be subordinate to what is being presented. As such, our interior designs aim to challenge visitors to reflect not simply consume, by avoiding an overload of information.
Prof HG Merz owner and director
Born 1947, architect, museum designer and curator, has two offices in Stuttgart and Berlin. Studies of architecture at the University of Stuttgart, from 1993 to 2007 professorship for Exhibition Design at the department of Visual Communication at the University of Applied Sciences at Pforzheim, since 2008 profes- sorship for Experimental Design at the department of Architecture at the Technical University Darmstadt.
