ABSTRACT
“Gletschergarten Luzern” (Glacier Garden Lucerne), one of the oldest and most visited museums in Lucerne, Switzerland, has expanded its museums spaces into the underground called “Die neue Felsenwelt” in 2021. In a spectacular tunnel system through the rock, the museum tells the Earth’s history from the formation of the Lucerne sandstone on the seashore, to its unfolding into the Alpine mountains and its modeling by the glaciers of the Ice Age into the future. The innovative concept of the museum aims to connect its contents with the tunnel design by incorporation the natural geological art along the tunnel. The challenge was to build the tunnel safely and present all surfaces as “true to nature” as possible, even in public areas, without any “visual disturbances” of auxiliary measures such as shotcrete or rock bolts. This paper illustrates selected aspects of the design and construction of an underground structure with the unique task of meeting high museum and architectural standards not usually found in traditional infrastructure projects.
