Museo Soumaya, Mexico City

Designed by FREE Fernando Romero EnterprisE, Museo Soumaya houses one of the most important art collections in Latin America with over 6,200 artworks and 60,000 square feet of exhibition space.

The Soumaya Museum is located in a former industrial zone dating from the 1940’s which today presents a very high commercial potential. The Soumaya Museum plays a key role in the reconversion of the area: as a preeminent cultural program, it acts as an initiator in the transformation of the urban perception. Its avant-garde morphology and typology define a new paradigm in the history of Mexican and international architecture.

From the outside, the building is an organic and asymmetrical shape that is perceived differently by each visitor, while reflecting the diversity of the collection on the inside. Its heterogeneous collection is housed in a continuous exhibition space spread over six levels, representing approximately 60,000 ft². The building also includes an auditorium for 350 people, library, offices, a restaurant, a gift shop and a multi-purpose gathering lounge.

The shell of the building is constructed with 28 steel curved columns of different diameters, each with its own geometry and shape, offering the visitor a soft non-linear circulation all through the building. Located at each floor level, seven ring beams provide a system that braces the structure and guarantees its stability. The top floor is the most generous space of the museum; its roof is suspended from an impressive cantilever that allows natural daylight to flow in freely. In contrast, the building’s envelope is nearly opaque, offering little and scarce openings to the outside. This gesture can be interpreted as an intention to create a protected shelter for the art collection. The façade is made of hexagonal aluminum modules that optimize the preservation and durability of the entire building.

 

Centre Pompidou-Metz France. Shigeru Ban Architects.

Centre Pompidou-Metz  Metz, France. (2010)

 The sister museum to the Pompidou in Paris, the Pompidou-Metz was design with a similar spirit and an equally interesting and “out there” design. Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban along with Jean de Gastines from France won the contract to design the structure back in 2003. Inspired by a a Chinese hat the roof is like a giant tent that covers the galleries below and is constructed of laminated timber covered in fiberglass and Teflon. At night, the museum lights glow through the roof revealing the intricately built timber mesh roof.

The Centre Pompidou-Metz is centered around a 77 meter spire that juts out from the roof like a rocket exploding from a balloon. The 77 meters is a nod to the year the original Pompidou was built – 1977. The roof undulates and extends out over there edges of the galleries below providing shade and protection from the sun and weather. Light filters down through the PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) white roof covering, letting natural daylight into the gallery space below. The roof was created with an innovative construction method utilizing six beams woven together to create the hexagonal pattern seen from below or at night when lights shine through the membrane.

Below the roof, sits three long rectangular gallery spaces resting on top of one another at 45 degree angle. The galleries poke out from the roof for views of the city and for added daylight. The interior of the museum is finished with light wood, white walls and pearl-grey polished concrete in order to convey a sense of openness. Outside the museum are sloping gardens that collect rainwater and pedestrian paths to the nearby TGV high speed train station.

The architecture and desgin of the Centre Pompidou-Metz is said to meet an “environmental quality and sustainable development criteria, and as such is coherent with the urban redevelopment programme being carried out in the city’s Amphithéâtre district.” Set to open in early May, artwork from the Pompidou’s extensive collection still needs to make it’s way over to the new museum. Besides exhibition space, the gallery will include an auditorium, café and restaurant, a bookshop-boutique, resource center and a studio for live performances.

150 Street Artists Transformed A Tunisian Island Into A Massive Outdoor Museum

The Paris-based institution Galerie Itinerrance invited artists like C215, eL Seed, Swoon, and ROA to paint the walls, doors and ruins of Djerba, turning the sparse architecture into open air canvases.

Djerba is the largest island in North Africa, home to Roman and Punic ruins and one of the oldest synagogues in the world -- El Ghriba. With idyllic beaches and a mild climate, Djerba has long been a tourist resort destination, though the tragic Ghriba synagogue bombing in 2002 slowed travel to the island for some time. George Lucas' 1977 "Star Wars Episode IV" filmed briefly in the town of Ajim, cementing Djerba's spot in pop culture history.