Since 1872, Budapest’s Museum of Ethnography has been housed in various locations around the city, but its current location, a Renaissance Revival building that was formerly the Hungarian Curia, has become too cramped.
Now, as part of its “Liget Budapest” Project, the city is completing the construction of an award-winning, purpose-designed building to house the museum in the City Park. The new location is no break with the past. The museum’s collection was first displayed here in 1896 during the National Millennium Exhibition. However, the acclaimed building will look to the future with a design that is anything but old-fashioned.
Purpose-Designed Building in Harmony with Park and City
For the first time, the Museum of Ethnography’s collection of 250,000 artefacts will be showcased in a space that was designed with the collection and the visitor experience in mind. The design, local winner of an international competition in 2016, is the brainchild of Napur Architect and features gently curving, bowed lines that unite the building, park, and surrounding city.
There will be little to no loss of public green space. About 60 percent of the building is situated below ground level, and the curving roof will be landscaped as a unique outdoor space for park and museum visitors. A park entry guides them to the lowest point of the curve, which acts as a public square with a sculptural focal point. The rising slope of the green roof presents further space for outdoor relaxation on both sides.
Above ground, the building’s emphasis is on transparency and a light, airy effect. The textured façade demonstrates patterns that evoke the area’s history as well as its present-day culture. The interior includes interactive exhibition spaces, lecture halls, work and study space, and a café.
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Napur Architect’s design was unanimously chosen for the museum based on the physical and aesthetic quality of the building, the technological and functional solutions to be employed, its sustainability profile, it’s suitability in context, and its overall cost.
In addition to this success, MIPIM Awards judges voted the museum Best Mega Futura Project for Europe and the design beat 1,700 other entries to win the World’s Best Architecture Award at the 2018 International Property Awards.
Flagship Design for Park Project to Provide Dramatic Park Entryway
Budapest’s central park project will include rehabilitation of the park as a whole. It already houses the museum of fine arts, museums of agriculture and transport, a zoo, an ice rink, and thermal baths. A “House of Hungarian Music” venue designed by Sou Fujimoto will form part of the park upgrade, as will a new National Gallery designed by SANAA.
The Museum of Ethnography is currently under construction and is expected to open its doors this year. All work on the Park and its amenities is expected to be complete in 2020.
