Museum of Photography and Architecture

Creative Vision
The museum buildings are envisioned, alongside the avenue and park, arranged in
whimsical and playful volumes surrounding the existing 1956 revolution memorial, which is
located on the axis of the Millennium World Expo (see historic site of Millennium World
Expo).
The horizontal rhythmic arrangement and large visual gaps between the buildings, when
viewed from the avenue, at once mesmerizes the onlooker while also providing a visual
connection between the road and the park. The buildings and the 1956 memorial, as an
integrated group of statues act as a permeated screen, revealing just enough to entice one to
visit the park and discover that which is not visible from the avenue.
It is this feeling of curiosity, of a desire to discover the unknown that invites the museum
visitor to explore these exciting, levitating building blocks.
Architectural Concept
Site analysis and taking into account the planned size of the museum buildings gave rise to a
concept of a large partitioned partition that at once emphasized the existence of the museum
while bringing attention to park.
On the ground floor, along the avenue, a horizontal glass ribbon ties the building volumes
together, while the delicate walls of pedestrian passage and the green slopes from the park
side create an integral connection to the park.
The five building volumes are arranged at an angle to each other divided into two groups by
the texture of the façade.
The intent is to create dynamic interaction amongst the buildings while providing
transparency from all directions, a view of the green areas from the avenue and a view of the
buildings from the park. All created by an interplay of the façade design which contrasts and
yet complements the nature in the background.
The connection of the upper storey facades is derived in the following two ways:
1. The reflective facades display their surroundings, events that happen in seconds or
changes that take years to develop, but always showing the actual surrounding at any
given moment keeping up with changes in time.
2. The interactive facades – lighting behind the perforated envelopes on the exhibitor
cubes which react to its environment and LED displays above the entrances
portraying the actual exhibition. An indicative use of “camera obscura” hidden behind
the facades creates an exciting connection between the exhibition area and the
eventful world outside.

The ground floor glass ribbon will display a few squares of the actual exhibitions as well as provide directions to the entryways. The two buildings basically differ in this way. The service and personnel entryway are all on the ground floor and are well separated from each other and are independent from the underground parking exits. Visitors can use escalators and elevators from the ground floor parking, completely segregated from the internal transit system of the museum. The building's interior, in addition to affording flexibility and maximal functionality, places the utmost importance on the transparency and exclusivity of the internal transit system. There are two spiral staircases in the photography museum, separate from the transit system of the exhibition areas, the Museum of Learning and the events space. Staircases of separate buildings are connected at the top floor and at the gallery to allow for ease of passage amongst different wings of the buildings. In the Museum of Architecture the stairs are arranged mirrored on a central axis allowing for separated functionality. Aside from the stairwells, several multi-level breakthroughs provide a view of the interior of the building levels all the way to the upper-most glass structures. The separated building volumes and stairs allow for the organization of simultaneous events such as private meetings and supporters meeting while other areas of the museum continue to operate as usual. The rooftop terraces have a 360 degree view of the city, and a coffee shop is found on the ground floor towards the park.