Museuminsel metro station
The Museumsinsel underground station as well as the new Rathaus and Unter den Linden stations complete the missing links on the U5 underground line between Brandenburger Tor and Alexanderplatz. The Museumsinsel stop will define a completely new location in the city’s cultural centre: the 180-metre-long station runs under the Spree Canal south of the nearby Schlossbrücke bridge and serves as an underground entrance for the city’s most important cultural institutions.
Max Dudler, architect of the station: ‘Our architectural theme is derived from the lack of natural light underground: the eternal night. That’s why we designed the two arched platform tunnels in a vibrant ultramarine blue, which is based on the historic set design for The Magic Flute by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. With 6,662 points of light, the tunnel shines like an arched starry sky. The reference to Schinkel’s theatrical idea is also a reference to the classical spirit that characterises the buildings on this site in the city.”
The new station is located on the eponymous Museum Island below the Spree Canal. Due to the special location, only two ends of the station could be built using the open construction method. The entire platform area had to be built in the protection of a huge ice body using the mining method. The ice body with a volume of 28,000 cubic metres was created by means of ingenious ice drilling and brine with calcium chloride at a temperature of -37 °C. The walls and columns are covered with blue granite from the Fichtelgebirge. The areas behind the track are decorated with paintings of Museum Island. The station has four entrances and exits. Two in front of the Humboldt Forum in the New Palace and one each in front of the Crown Prince’s Palace and the German Historical Museum.
