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Architects: FR-EE / Fernando Romero Enterprise
- Area: 17000 m²
- Year: 2011
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Photographs:Rafael Gamo , Adam Weisman, Raul Soria
Text description provided by the architects. The Soumaya Museum is home to a private art collection of nearly 70,000 works from 15th to mid-20th century, including the world’s largest private collection of Auguste Rodin sculptures.
Programmed and designed by FR-EE, the museum reflects the eclectic taste of the collector, as well as his desire to create a new cultural institution for the public and the city.
The 150-foot tall structure rises at the heart of a new cultural and commercial district, Plaza Carso, also planned and designed by FR-EE. The museum’s form, a rotated rhomboid supported by 28 curved steel columns of varying size and shapes, is clad in a skin of 16,000 hexagonal mirrored-steel elements which reference the traditional colonial ceramic-tiled building facades and gives the museum a diverse appearance depending on the weather, time of day and the viewer’s vantage point, while optimizing the preservation and durability of the entire building.
A seven-ring structural system creates cantilevers on multiple sides and stabilizes the museum’s continuous six-level promenade of exhibition, presentation and gathering space.
At the top floor, visitors enter a column-free exhibition hall filled with natural light. In addition to galleries, the Soumaya Museum includes a 350-seat auditorium, library, restaurant, gift shop and offices.
Note: this article was originally published on December 3, 2013.
