Skulpturenhalle, Contemporary art museum in Neuss, Germany

The Skulpturenhalle is an art hall in Neuss with a distinctive architectural form defined by vertical wooden slats and concrete elements. The building features a curved, shell-like roof structure that sits within an open landscape.

Thomas Schütte began planning the hall in 2012, producing seven increasingly detailed models over three and a half years before RKW Architektur + was commissioned. Construction started in August 2014 and the hall was inaugurated on 10 April 2016. Schütte financed the roughly 6.5 million euro building through the Thomas Schütte Foundation, into which he transferred his 18 "Frauen-Skulpturen" and other large works.

Schütte calls the small inner room of dark ring bricks his "chapel"; it is the only place where works can be hung on the walls, while the concrete hall itself takes no nails. Two to three exhibitions are mounted each year, and the adjoining administration building holds a library and a smaller exhibition room.

The hall is a single undivided room with an elliptical plan, entered from the adjoining administration building, which also holds the ticket desk, a smaller exhibition room and a library. Two to three exhibitions are mounted each year. The floor is heated and the ventilation is automatically controlled, so the interior stays usable in any season.

The oval hall contains a second room opening onto it, built of anthracite ring bricks; Schütte calls it the "chapel", and it is the only place where works can be hung on the walls. The roof is a timber hanging structure of 32 beams spanning axes of 22 to 35 metres, modelled on a spoked wheel.