Langen Foundation

In the location's words:

"The Langen Foundation building is the greatest work of art I have ever acquired."

- Marianne Langen

The Langen Foundation owes its existence to the collector Marianne Langen, who founded and donated the exhibition house. The whole thing is located on a former NATO base, in the middle of the tranquil landscape of the Lower Rhine. Back in the 1990s, collector Karl-Heinrich Müller had the idea of combining art and nature here in a unique way.

In 1994, he invited the Japanese star architect Tadao Ando to take a look at the rocket station in its original state. Ando was enthusiastic about the vision and designed an architectural model, which immediately became part of the project. When Marianne Langen saw his plans for the first time in 2001, it was clear to her that this building would be the last and largest work of art in her collection. And typically for her, she financed it entirely herself, without any state funding.

Tadao Ando is known for his love of concrete and his flair for special places - and this is also evident in his design for the Langen Foundation. He combined concrete, glass and steel and integrated the building perfectly into the existing landscape with its surrounding ramparts. The only opening is in the entrance area, which is marked by a four-meter-high, semi-circular concrete wall. A cut-out passageway provides a view of the building and a large reflecting pond in front of it - a real wow moment.

The exhibition building has been open since 2004 and consists of two interconnected wings with very different architecture. There is a long concrete block surrounded by a glass shell. Connected to it at a 45-degree angle is the main wing: two parallel cuboids sunk about six meters deep into the ground. A wide flight of steps leads back up from the depths - almost like a stairway to the sky.

A total of 1,300 square meters of exhibition space is available in the Lange Foundation, spread over three rooms. In the concrete block at ground level, you will find the so-called Japan Room - an unusually long and narrow gallery that Ando designed as a room of "silence" especially for the Japanese art collection. The modern works of art are housed in two underground exhibition rooms - with surprisingly high ceilings of eight meters!

Typical of Tadao Ando's architecture is the visibly smoothed concrete with recognizable formwork panels, which are based on the size of tatami mats. Together with the holes in the formwork anchors, this creates a striking pattern that runs through the entire building - even inside.