National Museum of Contemporary Art, Natural History Museum and Park of Arts & Culture | a-fact

The proposal is inspired by the remarkable nature of Montenegro, the stone cladding pays homage to the encircling mountains while establishing a new iconic architectural language that enhances the park and river scenery”.

The new museum district and the park of arts & culture will create a new urban attractor, hosting a large program of public events to celebrate culture, arts and heritage. Its iconic design will attract visitors from all over the world, fostering cultural exchange and promoting the creative economy. The Museum of Contemporary Art, the Natural History Museum and the House of Architecture will offer permanent and temporary exhibitions, research and didactic labs, informal meeting spaces, a new botanical garden and a large flexible outdoor space for venues and events that complements the new riverfront offering breathtaking perspectives of the river and the city.

What the buildings take away from the land is returned with a generous roof that merges with the landscape and offers a new natural outdoor gathering place with wonderful views over the riverwalk. The vegetation on the roof dissolves the lines between the building and the terrain while ensuring a continuous movement across the landscape and enriching the local biodiversity

The landscape design, with its blue-green infrastructure, starts with an analysis of the site to incorporate existing values and improve the park's biodiversity with the retention of 290 trees, the addition of 532 new trees of different species and 900 shrubs. In addition, the museum park's connections to the city are emphasised with a focus on the riverfront and improved usability for citizens. The choices positively impact the overall project's environmental performance in terms of carbon sequestration, oxygen production and particulate abatement. "What we have positioned is a vision of an architecture that generates a new river landscape and thus connects the river with the city. The project is a contribution to river regeneration within the European Nature Restoration Law," explains Andreas Kipar, founder and CEO of LAND.

Sustainability is at the heart of the proposal as the project aims to adopt and integrate passive and active environmental strategies to reduce the overall energy consumption for heating, cooling, artificial lighting and potable water use. In addition, the implementation of modern construction techniques combined with the use of local materials positively impacts the buildings’ life cycle and the overall reduction of its carbon emissions.

Credits

Location: Podgorica, Montenegro

Year: 2024

Status: International competition, 1st Prize 

Typology: Cultural

Client: Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property

Area: approx. 14.500 sqm

Architecture and team leader: a-fact

Landscape design: LAND Italia

Structural and Façade Engineering: Maffeis Engineering

Experience design: Charcoalblue

Render:  EmmeWorks