Documenta 2017: A Guide to Kassel's Most Interesting Exhibition Spaces

Documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, is renowned for prioritizing content over container, but this guide highlights six architectural and urban spaces worth visiting beyond the artworks. The Fridericianum remains the conceptual core, but the city's rebuilt postwar landscape now offers compelling venues. The Grimmwelt Museum (2015), designed by kadawittfeldarchitektur of Aachen, is a stone monolith with panoramic rooftop access. The Museum of Sepulchral Culture blends old and modern architecture (1990s) and includes a restaurant and bookshop. The functionalist Kunsthochschule Kassel, designed by Paul Friedrich Posenenske in 1969, sits at the edge of the Karlsaue Baroque park. Wilhelmshöhe station features a three-screen video installation and a metal canopy supported by 59 irregular 15-meter columns. The renovated StadtMuseum (reopened 2016 after six years of construction) hosts a performance by Regina José Galindo. The University of Kassel campus, still under construction, includes a new canteen by augustinundfrankarchitekten and the Geisshaus. Also notable is the Hessisches Landesmuseum, which houses part of documenta and a permanent collection.