Refurbishment And Reconstruction Of TheAcademy Of Arts

Abstract

The Academy of Arts is a striking part of the Dresden skyline. The building was completed in 1894 and suffered heavy damage in the bombing raid on Dresden on February 13*, 1945. Preliminary repairs and securing measures were carried out in the post-war years, so that teaching activities could be resumed. The building complex of the Academy of Arts with its exhibition has been undergoing renovation, reconstruction and modernization since 1992. The work, parts of which are very complex, will extend into the first years of the next century. In the following, the most important renovation and reconstruction work projects are portrayed and the adopted solutions are described. 1 History of the Academy of Arts Precursors of the Academy of Arts can be found in Dresden dating from 1680. The Kurfurstliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunste (Electoral Academy of Graphic Arts) was founded in 1764. Subjects taught at the academy included the fields of painting, sculpture, copperplate engraving and architecture. The former Briihlsche Bibliothek was converted to house the academy and another storey was added to the building, which became the seat of the academy from 1790. The former Briihlsche Gemaldegalerie was used to house the art exhibitions of the Academy of Arts. All buildings of the Academy on the Briihlsche Terrasse were conceived by the architect Christoph Knoffel and are an expression of a moderate baroque architecture, which gave the silhouette of the city by the Elbe river an unmistakable character for more than 150 years. Canaletto, but also other painters and artists, recorded this image in manifold ways in their paintings and drawings. Transactions on the Built Environment vol 39 © 1999 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509