Proposal for Museum of Ethnography, Budapest Cultural Centre Architecture, Images

Proposal for Museum of Ethnography

Cultural Centre Development, Hungary – design by Graeme Massie Architects

page updated 29 Dec 2016 with new images ; 2 Jun 2015

Proposal for Museum of Ethnography in Budapest

Location: Budapest, Hungary

Design: Graeme Massie Architects

Museum of Ethnography in Budapest Which was 3rd Place

Although digital media has radically increased society’s capacity to access and disseminate knowledge, there remains a great need for physical museum structures to house and exhibit the physical artefacts which continue to influence our understanding of the world around us.

However, the museum building type is undergoing radical change: a greater emphasis is now placed on their social and research roles, as well as their relationship to the wider world.

As a result, this requires the creation of a diverse range of formal and informal environments which offers visitors both enlightenment and entertainment.

The architects propose a new Museum of Ethnography centred not only on providing a dynamic and flexible home for the display of artefacts, but also on the creation of a social environment which promotes a spirit of dialogue, interaction and discovery.

The design for the new Museum of Ethnography stems from both an understanding of its role as a civic building in a historic European capital city and its need to respond to the requirements of a twenty-first century museum.

The Museum develops a specific architectural character through open dialogue with the City, Park and Promenade.

Each of these conditions are unique leading to an architecture which is both responsive to its surroundings but also singular in its ambition and expression.

The result is a Museum which makes sensitive contextual connections but delivers a compelling civic presence by both day and night.

The idea of ‘landscape’ is fundamental to our development of the new Museum. In order to physically integrate the building with the Park and Promenade, the interior is modelled as a continuation of the external landscape.

A route from entrance hall to observation tower is formed which binds together a complex, and integrated, series of ideas relating to the social and exhibition needs of the museum, the creation of an unfolding architectural promenade and the reduction in energy consumption.

The result is an interior which metaphorically takes on the character of a landscape (comprising terraces, caverns, canyons, grottos and a plateau) to create a socially inclusive atmosphere necessary for a successful new museum.

Space expands and contracts, light is manipulated in response to space, and artefacts are layered across space and time to orchestrate an experience which will be diverse, dynamic and inspiring.