The New Acropolis Museum | Bernard Tschumi Architects

The New Acropolis Museum EN - After a 33 year opus of three unresolved architectural competitions, including the international of 438 entries, site environmental changes named a final international competition as directed by the secretary of culture and the EU. In September 2001 First prize was equally awarded to the architecture team of Bernard Tschumi architects, NY and Paris with associate Michael Photiadis, Athens. The OANMA foundation (Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum), was presided by professor of archaeology Dimitris Pantermalis. With dynamism and patience he formed the competition declaration and organized the study framework and its relations with state and archaeological services. He is fortunately president of the Museum. inventively The Museum site retains the excavations of Athenian neighborhood periods from Hellenistic (2nd c. BC) to early Byzantine (7th c. AD). Visitors are to be guided among existing retained walls. Part of the Museum is supported on pilotis, above the archaeological excavations with bearing parts defined in collaboration with structural engineers and archaeologists: they cover only 1.7% of the excavated area. Within the building the visitors’ entry level is a low glass ramp rising between two 5×50 m. structural core elements containing six elevators, four escalators, eight fire-escape stairs, installation passages and rest rooms. The ramp leads within the 8 m. high display spaces. The second level presents the Archaic period, the Caryatids with a two level view below, who are followed on the visitors descend by the post Parthenon exhibits. The Parthenon all glass gallery crowns the building to the Jury’s energy-splurging reaction. This level’s axis was shifted by 23 degrees to give the frieze and metopes the same orientation originally enjoyed by the temple. The ultimate aim is to unite the divided sculptures, 55% of which are in the British Museum (the ‘Elgin marbles’) and 45% in Athens. It should be noted that the frieze’s major ‘stone of the veil’, remains at the Louvre. The visitors’ promenade through the museum evolves through the history of the residential layers, visible through the glass floor and culminating in the Parthenon gallery. Auxiliary spaces include the café restaurant mezzanine, the tiered 250 seat Amphitheater, the Traveling Display gallery. The Museum’s chosen site and design was criticized on final location, urban and social reasoning, materials choice, energy, seismic and environmental aspects. The greek and international public reconsidered the force of classical greek art. The Museum was expected to receive 10.000 visitors daily within its 23.000 sq.m. mixed area. Yet from 2009 to 2013 there have been five and a half million visitors. All of the Museum’s expenses are totally covered by its own profits (tickets, gift shops, restaurant) without state or private funds! The AIA (American Institute of Architects) awarded it Best Design of 2011. It was within the selected six finalists of the international ‘Mies Van de Rohe’ Architectural Competition of 1910. In May 2013, among 50 Museums, the ‘London Times’ voted the Acropolis Museum the third most important world museum, after the Smithsonian in Washington DC and the British in London. IT- Destinato a sorgere ai piedi dell’Acropoli, il New Acropolis Museum ha rappresentato per il progettista una non facile sfida. La particolare vicinanza all’Acropoli (soli 300 metri di distanza dal Partenone), la relazione con la città nuova, nonché il delicato problema degli scavi archeologici, hanno implicato una grande responsabilità in ogni singola scelta progettuale. “Tali premesse – spiega l’autore del progetto – ci hanno indirizzati verso un progetto semplice, ispirato alla chiarezza concettuale e matematica appartenente all’antica Grecia”. “Caratterizzato da uno sviluppo prevalentemente orizzontale e dalla massima semplicità, il museo è stato deliberatamente concepito come un volume non-monumentale”. La struttura si articola in tre elementi: una base, un volume centrale ed uno superiore. La geometria del nuovo museo asseconda gli scavi archeologici sottostanti e l’orientamento del volume più alto rispetto al Partenone. All’interno del basamento - sospeso sugli scavi archeologici e sostenuto da 100 pilastri di cemento – trovano spazio l’atrio principale, spazi per esposizioni temporanee, un auditorium e aree di servizio. Una rampa vetrata, che consente lo sguardo sugli scavi sottostanti, conduce alle gallerie espositive del volume centrale, uno spazio a doppia altezza (10 metri), in pianta trapezoidale, sostenuto da imponenti colonne. Il volume più alto, completamente vetrato, ospita la galleria rettangolare del Partenone. Tale spazio risulta spostato di 23 gradi rispetto alla porzione sottostante, direttamente orientato verso l’Acropoli. Qui la luce si rivela grande regista del museo. La trasparenza del vetro consente infatti l’illuminazione naturale dell’area, nonché una incredibile e suggestiva vista sulla vicina Acropoli. “L’utilizzo di vari tipi di vetro e di lucernari schermati – assicurano dallo studio Bernard Tschumi Architects – consente l’ingresso di luce naturale e al contempo la protezione della galleria dal calore e dalla eccessiva esposizione ai raggi solari”.