New Acropolis Museum, 1990
International Competition, First stage commendation
The new Museum is part of an extensive functional and programmatic whole that extends on and around the Acropolis. It is located on the site of “Dionysos”, embedded in the landscape, placed at the lowest point between the hill of Philopappos and the Acropolis.
The museum is a weightless transparent structure that allows light to enter through all its sides and the suspended roof. As the exhibits are lit naturally, the equilibrium of lighting conditions between inside and outside makes them visible from the street and the adjacent to the museum area. The lightness of the structure is in contrast to the weight of the sculptures, while allowing the surrounding landscape to become a part of the museum itself.
The building is placed on the ground as a protective shelter, without disturbing the equilibrium of such a vulnerable site. The rock lying in a small depth from the surface is not injured, as the use of a basement was ruled out for that purpose. In that sense, the building incorporates the notion of a temporary structure that could be removed without leaving any trace on the site.
The new Museum contains the exhibition of the Classical period, as the exhibits of the archaic and geometric periods remain in the existing museum next to the Parthenon. The entrance hall of the new Museum leads up towards the galleries of the Classical period on the main level, where the pediments and the metopes of the Parthenon are exhibited. The west pediment is exhibited in the museum in direct visual relation to the western elevation of the temple. The Parthenon frieze is placed on a higher level, accessed by the visitor as if it was in its original position with scaffolding around it. The elevated level of the frieze has a central opening that has the size of the cella, defining in an abstract way the geometric proportions of the original temple in the new building through the void. On the main level, the exhibition is completed with the Karyatids and the frieze of the temple of Athena Nike.
The complementary relation between the monuments on the Acropolis and the removed parts exhibited in the new museum is the determining idea for the project, as it relates to these two parameters through a common vision.
International Competition, First stage commendation
The new Museum is part of an extensive functional and programmatic whole that extends on and around the Acropolis. It is located on the site of “Dionysos”, embedded in the landscape, placed at the lowest point between the hill of Philopappos and the Acropolis.
The museum is a weightless transparent structure that allows light to enter through all its sides and the suspended roof. As the exhibits are lit naturally, the equilibrium of lighting conditions between inside and outside makes them visible from the street and the adjacent to the museum area. The lightness of the structure is in contrast to the weight of the sculptures, while allowing the surrounding landscape to become a part of the museum itself.
The building is placed on the ground as a protective shelter, without disturbing the equilibrium of such a vulnerable site. The rock lying in a small depth from the surface is not injured, as the use of a basement was ruled out for that purpose. In that sense, the building incorporates the notion of a temporary structure that could be removed without leaving any trace on the site.
The new Museum contains the exhibition of the Classical period, as the exhibits of the archaic and geometric periods remain in the existing museum next to the Parthenon. The entrance hall of the new Museum leads up towards the galleries of the Classical period on the main level, where the pediments and the metopes of the Parthenon are exhibited. The west pediment is exhibited in the museum in direct visual relation to the western elevation of the temple. The Parthenon frieze is placed on a higher level, accessed by the visitor as if it was in its original position with scaffolding around it. The elevated level of the frieze has a central opening that has the size of the cella, defining in an abstract way the geometric proportions of the original temple in the new building through the void. On the main level, the exhibition is completed with the Karyatids and the frieze of the temple of Athena Nike.
The complementary relation between the monuments on the Acropolis and the removed parts exhibited in the new museum is the determining idea for the project, as it relates to these two parameters through a common vision.
