The horizons of Manfred Lehmbruck: the floating museum at Federsee

Abstract

The Federsee Museum in Bad Buchau, Germany, was created by the architect Manfred Lehmbruck between 1959 and 1968. The main purpose of this article is to show that all the decisions that Lehmbruck makes, during the development of the project, serve for this museum to maintain a relationship special with the horizon. The research is developed from the original documentation of the basic project obtained in Federsee, photographs and sketches made in situ and an exhaustive bibliography. The text is divided into six sections: in the first, it is ref lected on the cultural landscape where the building is located; in the second, the construction system and the presence of wood are analyzed; in the third, the fact that the building f loats is studied, giving importance to the shadowed space; the fourth section focuses on the sequence of journeys in space; the fifth ref lects on the constant presence of water in the project; finally, in the last section, the relationships that the building maintains with the horizons are analyzed. All these questions serve to explain the exceptionality of an architecture that is anchored to the earth and, simultaneously, floats on water.