Swiss National Museum / Christ & Gantenbein

Save this picture!

+ 11

Save this picture!

Text description provided by the architects. The expansion to the National Museum Zurich, for which the opening celebration will take place in July 2016, complements the original museum building of 1898 designed by the architect Gustav Gull. The new wing is located on the side adjoining the Platzspitz Park. The old and new buildings are directly coupled to each other so as to form an architectural and urban ensemble. The historical and modern building elements successfully confront each other. The new building directly incorporates some of the context’s existing features into its architecture. The building’s layout accommodates the trees and paths of the historical park, and the characteristic roofscape of the old building sets the volumetric theme of the new structure. The expressive folds in the rooftops can be understood as a contemporary interpretation of Gull’s articulated Historicism. The new is thus inconceivable without the old, but is nonetheless unmistakably modern.