This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights museum projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. Through examples from all around the world, the article explores how these spaces of knowledge and discovery are designed to inspire and inform.
Featuring a vertically developed art museum in Finland, a structure that merges with the landscape in China, or a maritime museum shaped by the conditions of the shoreline in Brazil, the round-up spans various kinds of museums and art spaces, as well as different attitudes towards the built or natural environment. The following projects reveal the ideas that shape museums in different contexts, illustrating diverse approaches towards what constitutes an institution of learning.
Read on to discover 10 curated museums and cultural buildings designs, along with their project descriptions from the architects.
Mountains Interweaving
The architecture is inspired by the unique nappe structure of Longmen Mountain. Extract a part from Longmen Mountain, use it to represent the history of the place spatially, then the building takes form. Make a section of this fossil-like museum and shape a window of time. On the site, the inertia of Longmen Mountain passes through the building, penetrates the display space inside, and then flows out to the exhibition hall by the river outside.
Brazilian Maritime Museum
Water is the "common space" par excellence because, at the same time, it brings us closer and distances us from the Other, that is, from the unknown and the unpredictable - everything that contemporary cities seem to deny symptomatically. It is precisely there, in this inconstant "common space", that the navigations cross, articulate, and dispute the different cultural and natural identities. Therefore, if before the horizon of the navigations was the encounter with new lands, today it is the encounter with new waters, or rather, with new "commons.
The new Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere
Piippu ("chimney" in Finnish), an art beacon in the centre of Tampere, simultaneously creates a functional, flexible museum with an innovative architectural identity that reinforces the memory of the Finlayson area. Hey5's proposal for the new Sara Hildén Art Museum turns verticality into an asset, creating a strong urban presence, respecting the site's urban structure and architecture, and pushing the visitor experience to new limits.
Shanghai Submarine Museum
The Shanghai Submarine Museum will occupy a historic drydock on the Huangpu River, creating a waterfront landmark while respecting the site's heritage and connecting it to the green pedestrian zone of cultural and recreational venues. PES-Architects' design forms a mirror-clad bridge over the dock, expanding upwards in the second phase with multifunctional exhibition spaces and a restaurant. Activities can extend into the dock, which can be partially filled with water to form an undulating landscape of pools and paths.
The National Museum of Korean Literature
We decided to void the site to allow everyone to fill this empty space with their imagination. The void area shall be filled with natural light and shadows; it shall have two growing trees to leave room to talk about the passage of time; it allows the flow of the wind causing waves in the pond's water. Furthermore, it shall be filled with the space of memories of people who visit, stay, and use their time within.
Tehran Science Museum
Art of City Engineering
The site consists of a 10 ha plot of land with a 56 m difference in elevation, studded with mature trees, and located northeast of the intersection of two major freeways of Tehran. The nature of the project and its unique site calls for the design of an iconic building for the city. The museum building is an elongated cube supported on two hilltops along a ridgeline, with the least physical impact on existing topography and vegetation, making optimum use of terrain features.
Davison Art Gallery
Established in 1952, Wesleyan's Davison Art Center holds an art collection of more than 25,000 works—including one of the finest print collections at any university in the United States. A significant and historic project for the 190-year-old liberal arts university, the PRO-designed 5,550 square foot art building will dramatically enhance Wesleyan's student-serving facilities and integrate visual art into daily campus life as the first new art building in over 50 years. The building features a sweeping roof and glass-walled lobby that elegantly distinguishes the art space from its more interior-focused neighbours.
Gilcrease Museum
The building is conceptually centred on reconnecting humankind to nature. The colour and material palettes for the building reflect the art deco styles found throughout Tulsa, including the use of stone and gilded metals in concert with the natural tones of the land and sky. A three-story atrium helps orient visitors while other spaces throughout the building frame views of Downtown and North Tulsa and panoramic views of the Osage Hills that will create experiential moments between visitors and the "Great American Landscape" surrounding the museum and grounds.
Museum of Korean Literature
The Architecture of the building is a collection of randomized shapes formed by vertical walls which meander through the building creating the building mass. The two lower floors are organized as back-of-house with regular flat slabs and columns. The first floor is an arched space cut through the walls creating ample open space to encapsulate the main museum and community facilities. Transparent and translucent glass partitions segregate functional spaces where necessary. NMKL thus realizes a space that symbolizes multi-dimensional enjoyment of Korean Literature.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
