Architect | Museum of World Culture
A project designed by Brisac Gonzalez. It is a London-based architecture practice established in 1999 by Cécile Brisac and Edgar Gonzalez. They believe that their buildings have exceptional spatial qualities that are augmented by palettes of visually rich and robust materials.
Project Details and Accomplishments
Museum of World Culture is located in Gothenburg, SE for the benefit of SFV Statens Fastighetsverk (Swedish National property board). Completed in 2004. It includes exhibition galleries, a research centre, a library, a 200-seat auditorium, and a restaurant.
The project won multiple awards, including the Kasper Salins Prize for the best new building in Sweden, in 2004. In 2005, It was also selected for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture’s Mies van der Rohe Award. won the AIA / UK Chapter Excellence in Design Award, and was a nominee for The Forum Prize, Stockholm, Sweden.
In 2006, the museum won the International Prize ‘Dedalo Minosse Alla Committenza di Architettura in Vicenza, Italy
The site
“The museum provides a new public platform for the ethnographic collections of Sweden. It also serves as a new forum for international and local events. The site is situated at the foot of a hill in the city centre.”Brisac Gonzalez
The site itself is paradoxical. You find surrounding natural Landscape emerging in the urban Skyview. The museum is not only a connection worldwide but also, in its location itself is a connection between nature and the city. The hill topography makes the installment tricky.
Volumetry follows the function | Museum of World Culture
“The design strategy revolved around creating a marked difference between a solid west wing, containing the gallery spaces and offices along the street, and an open east wing towards the hill, where public activities take place. “Brisac Gonzalezè
The museum disposes of around 100,000 objects of historical objects, cultural treasures from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and a rich archive. Among others, the collection holds one of the most important European collections of Paracas textiles from Peru. Preserving artefacts and paintings oblige a certain lightning level which explains their existence in the compact west wing. The administration is preferably hidden because it’s not included in the museum experience.
The exhibits are created with teams of national and international researchers, experts, and relevant organisations.
Although places of daily activities where you find most of the visitors are bathed in natural light. It’s also helpful for increasing the aesthetics of a space. It makes the atrium appear larger and illuminates the interior structure which is already sombre.
A canyon-like zone between the two aisles contains the building services, with public circulation weaving its way through the three areas.
Going up visiting the other areas, the below area can be perceived from above, creating a sequence of reference points throughout the building. Not only that, the views are altered between the hill, atrium, and museum. The void in the middle creates a certain patio or, rather, a focal point of light.
The ground floor contains an open space open to exhibitions, the atrium, an auditorium, sanitary facilities, shops to buy souvenirs, and a technical area.
A restaurant on the first floor and an informal café located by the main stairs provide a complement to the museum visit.
For visitors who want to extend their visit, there is also a bar.
The Museum of World Culture seeks to serve as a meeting place where emotional and intellectual experiences allow people to feel comfortable at home and abroad. This focal point aims to encourage a shared responsibility to promote a global future in a constantly changing world.
The museum’s activities have an interdisciplinary perspective. Providing an auditorium and seminar areas offer a forum for discussion and reflection where all voices can be heard, and controversial topics can be raised in an open forum where people, no matter where they come from, find their freedom.
Such a liberated museum concept features world-class exhibition facilities. Changing thematic exhibits are displayed in five different galleries dispatched vertically. An ascending metaphor expresses the dynamics and changes of world culture today.
The building presents a striking interaction between the half concrete elements and the other half of glazed panels that allow the contours of the building to shine through.
The transparency absorbs part of the luminous flux energy but simultaneously generates specular reflections upon its surface. It magnifies the wooden area surrounding that part. It’s like making the exterior landscape part of the museum experience. The Compacity excludes the urban part of the surrounding.
The museum library on the fourth floor has a collection of over 30,000 titles and around 900 journals and reviews in the fields of ethnography, social and cultural anthropology, history, and sociology, all covering mostly south and central America and some from Indonesia.
Besides the library, there’s also a research centre. It helps to maintain a museum’s vital reputation as a repository of reliable information and expertise, cementing the public’s trust in the institution. It keeps up with what’s developing and offers fresh insight into works.
References:
Brisac Gonzalez. (n.d.). Museum of World Culture. [online] Available at: http://www.brisacgonzalez.com/museum-of-world-culture
Anon, (n.d.). Gothenburg | Museum of World Culture | In exhibit. [online] Available at: https://www.inexhibit.com/case-studies/museum-of-world-culture-gothenburg-sweden/.
www.archiweb.cz. (n.d.). Archiweb – Museum of World Culture Gothenburg. [online] Available at: https://www.archiweb.cz/en/b/narodni-muzeum-svetovych-kultur-statens-museer-f-r-v-rldskultur.
Archilovers. (n.d.). Museum of World Culture | Brisac Gonzalez. [online] Available at: https://www.archilovers.com/projects/128181/museum-of-world-culture.html
