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.