MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY COMPETITION
2014
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
THE AUTHORS VISION
The main leitmotif that lies under this design proposal for the new building of the Museum of Ethnography is the establishment of an open house for the research and display of the objects, sounds and images that constitute the ethnological world heritage and the contemporary expression of the Hungarian people. It was the author’s intention to create in the Museum Quarter of the City Park of Budapest an iconic building designed in the language of modern architecture, capable of symbolizing in it the aggregator nature of the museum’s social and cultural functions.
ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT & SITE RELATIONS
The architectural concept for the design of the museum was born out of the demands of its programme and of the architectural relations suggested by the given site.
Above ground the museum’s building has the form of a longitudinal prismatic mass built of exposed white concrete, stainless steel and glass, a permeable frontier between Dózsa György Street and the City Park. This mass is suspended above ground level, strongly diminishing the extent of land coverage and allowing for the continuity between the surrounding urban fabric and the green background of the park. The upper part of the construction its spread over a vast external square, an open area able to receive the future changes to the City Park’s landscape design. This square closes and articulates the foreseen pedestrian promenade with the adjacent sidewalks, the park’s pathways, and the goods, artefacts, guests and visitors accesses to the museum.
Above the square level the prismatic volume is composed of two main bodies with the same height (in accordance with the maximum 25m allowed by the Competition Programme) and various longitudinal extensions. They are united by a lower volume 10m height, creating an articulated mass integrated in the environing facades profiles. At the crossing of Dózsa György Street and Ajtósi Dürer allée the smaller body of the building, a corner stone holding the lecture and event halls, is chamfered and opened at full height upon the urban junction. The chamfering reflects the corner emphasis of the surrounding buildings and introduces a diagonal movement, a spatial shaft that designs a new metaphoric gate for the City Park.
The concept of open museum is strengthened by the fluidity of the main access, a ramp laid in the continuity of the pedestrian promenade, and by the transparency of the stainless steel and glass frames that close the longitudinal street and park facades and the six full height patios in the core of the aboveground volume.
