General staff building extension for the Hermitage, a former palace in St. Petersburg (Photo: OMA/AMO)

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA/AMO) will redesign the art displays inside St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum over the next six years to bring the landmark Russian institution up to date. In tandem with the Hermitage, Koolhaas will, in the first year, draw up a master plan for re-exhibiting the museum’s treasures. He will then change the displays in the Islamic and Chinese rooms, and use a section of the imperial general staff building as a contemporary art space.

No new structure will be put up, nor will any part of the existing architecture be modified. “The goal is not about going back to a previous condition, but perhaps creating a greater awareness of what was once there, or finding a way so the two can be present at the same time,” said Koolhaas in a recent interview. “I want to find another way to modernize the museum, to modernize the physical substance.”

OMA/AMO has been working as a consultant for the State Hermitage Museum for several years now. In 2003 OMA/AMO already proposed an extension project dealing not only with architecture but as well with the distribution of 3.5 million artifacts across 2,000 rooms. The next phase of the project will run to 2014, the Hermitage’s 250th anniversary. Financial backing will be provided by the Dutch government and the Moscow-based Mercury Group, which sells luxury goods. The architectural team will also organize four international seminars discussing central issues of the investigation, with leading specialists and cultural figures. The Hermitage 2014 Masterplan will culminate in a final international exhibition and publication.

Photo collage of an exhibition in the General Staff Building: “Does every museum need to be modernized”? “Might neglect be used ‘to expose value”? (Photo: OMA/AMO)

Read an interview with Rem Koolhaas (Bloomberg, January 30, 2008)
Read press release (Office for Metropolitan Architecture, January 25, 2008)
Go to website State Hermitage Museum
Go to website OMA/AMO