David Chipperfield designs pavilion for giant Anselm Kiefer painting
David Chipperfield Architects has completed a textured concrete pavilion in Künzelsau, Germany, to house Anselm Kiefer's monumental painting Schwarze Flocken.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- David Chipperfield Architects designed a dedicated concrete pavilion for a monumental painting.
- Anselm Kiefer created Schwarze Flocken in 2007, and it debuted publicly on October 13, 2026.
- The 140-square-meter building is located in the sculpture garden of Museum Würth 2 in Germany.
- The structure utilizes natural timber beams and daylight while maintaining a frost-free indoor climate naturally.
David Chipperfield Architects has completed a freestanding concrete pavilion in Künzelsau, Germany, addressing the long-standing challenge of exhibiting an exceptionally large artwork by German artist Anselm Kiefer. The building was constructed specifically to house a monumental painting that exceeds eleven meters in height and seven meters in width.
Created in 2007, the painting is titled Schwarze Flocken (Black Flakes) and represents Kiefer's largest work within the Würth Collection. Its vast canvas incorporates oil, emulsion, shellac, earth, and twigs, producing a heavily textured surface that defines the artist's signature practice and physical approach to materials.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
The artwork derives its title from a poem by Paul Celan, whose literary works confront the personal devastation and historical losses of the Holocaust. Kiefer's composition draws directly upon this somber history through layered materials that give physical weight to the subject matter. The immense scale and contextual depth of the painting ultimately served as the catalyst for commissioning an entirely new architectural structure.
Single-artwork pavilions represent a specialized typology in contemporary architecture, requiring close collaboration between architects and artists to tailor spatial volumes strictly to a specific piece. This approach transforms architecture from a neutral container into an active component of the viewing experience, allowing natural elements like sunlight and weather shifts to directly influence how art is perceived.
The new pavilion occupies a gentle rise at the southwestern edge of the Carmen Würth Forum, another notable project by David Chipperfield Architects. Its monolithic, compact form integrates smoothly among the surrounding sculpture garden, featuring a bush-hammered concrete exterior that echoes the tactile finish of the nearby cultural complex. A shallow portico cuts into the facade, establishing a sheltered transition from the open landscape to the interior volume.
Inside, Kiefer worked in direct collaboration with the architects to determine the precise proportions of the exhibition space, window placements, and wall colors. The painting commands the central focus of the double-height room, spanned overhead by exposed solid timber beams. Skylights fitted between the beams introduce soft daylight from above, shifting continuously throughout the day and across seasons to alter the appearance of the dense canvas.
"David Chipperfield Architects and the artist established the proportions of the room, including the positioning of its openings and the color of its walls."
David Chipperfield Architects
The building adopts an unconventional internal climate strategy. Behind the concrete shell, a brickwork layer finished with clay plaster forms a thick wall assembly capable of reacting to outdoor weather conditions. This construction keeps the interior frost-free without relying on active mechanical climate-control systems, while skylights replace standard museum-grade artificial lighting.
Source: designboom
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