Germany retold: This is what the Migration Museum in Cologne will look like

10 April 2025

• Europe-wide tendering process for architecture and exhibition design comes to a successful conclusion
• Architecture by ATELIER BRÜCKNER combines industrial character with sustainable cultural building
• Cologne's industrial hall is transformed into a place of remembrance and encounters
• The Museum Selma shows how migration has shaped and continues to shape Germany
• Opening planned for 2029

Cologne, 10.04.2025 - Where steel sheets were once cast and rolled, a pioneering cultural building will be built over the next few years: the Museum Selma. ATELIER BRÜCKNER convinced the jury with a consistently sustainable design for architecture and exhibition design. A Europe-wide award procedure has come to a successful end with this winning design. Based on a modern museum concept, the nationwide migration museum retells the history of Germany.

ATELIER BRÜCKNER from Stuttgart is one of the world's leading exhibition designers and is responsible for the general planning. In a two-stage award process, the idea sketch that the jury felt best addressed the museum's content requirements - opening up to the district, sustainability, participation and digitality - came out on top.

Preservation of the existing building as a sustainability factor

“What impressed us about the concept submitted by ATELIER BRÜCKNER was the open and flexible room layout as well as the sustainable construction method,” explains Yordanos Asghedom, project manager for the museum construction at the sponsoring company DOMiD. “Museums have a special responsibility to become model pioneers in structural adaptation to climate change. The interdisciplinary planning team has proposed innovative solutions here, which we are now planning further.” According to Asghedom, the careful handling of the industrial elements and building within the existing structure - i.e. not demolishing the existing hall - are further factors that distinguish the concept for the Selma Museum as sustainable. “On the one hand, the design provides for modular wooden installations, but on the other hand it works out the strengths of the existing halls and uses their elements: The side aisle of Hall 70 is used for circulation and free accessibility. Crane runways, doors and door openings, rails and surfaces are retained and integrated into the design.”

The museum as a “third place”

The neighboring hall is being developed as an “open-air hall” according to current plans by the City of Cologne. This will create attractive open-air recreational areas for the district. “Even the entrance to the museum will be an experience,” says Robert Fuchs, Managing Director of DOMiD. Visitors enter the museum via the open-air hall and then find themselves in a large entrance area. Large areas in this spacious foyer are freely accessible and therefore invite people to spend time here - regardless of whether they are visiting the exhibition. The Museum Selma thus follows the idea of museums as attractive “third places” where people like to spend time and which are not subject to consumption.

“Form follows content”, the design philosophy of ATELIER BRÜCKNER

The core of the permanent exhibition consists of a chronological presentation of German history, supplemented by perspectives on migration, as well as six concept rooms that create unique visitor experiences. “ATELIER BRÜCKNER's exhibition design is characterized by the fact that visitors can move freely without being told what to look at first. The arrangement goes hand in hand with our idea that migration is constantly changing our society - again and again from the beginning. Here it becomes clear that the form of the museum is derived from the content,” says Fuchs.

“The exhibition will tell our story as a migration society - in many voices and from many perspectives. Because Germany's history is a history of migration,” explains Iva Krtalić from the museum's circle of partners. “An open space is being created here that invites encounters and dialog. Everyone is invited to explore and tell this story here, where we can discuss and shape our coexistence today and in the future.”

The Museum Selma as a new type of museum

The exhibition design provides numerous opportunities for interaction with the content.
The participation and co-determination of as many perspectives as possible already plays a major role in the development of the museum content: an entire concept space of the exhibition is developed in a participatory process.

In addition to public participation as a core principle, there are other factors that make the Selma Museum a “new type of museum”. These include its emergence from a migrant self-organization, when the supporting association DOMiD was founded in 1990. The various possibilities that the museum will offer also contribute to this: Forms of use such as exhibitions, cultural events, research and collections will be united here under one roof. A movie theater, a digital lab, a freely usable “open space” and areas for children make it clear that this is not a “classic” museum. Modular event rooms allow for uses ranging from small seminars to conferences, company celebrations and cultural events. In addition to the exhibition, the collection of over 150,000 objects will also move to modern new storage rooms in Cologne-Kalk. The museum thus combines all uses in one place.

The construction of the museum is being funded by the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The City of Cologne is providing the building and land and is involved in the development of the “Hallen Kalk” as a new public quarter in Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine. The operation is secured by public funds and own income. The sponsoring company is currently looking for partners from the private sector to further expand the topics of digitalization and participation. Subject to external factors, the Selma Museum is scheduled to open in 2029.