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Mohammed Mansoor + Architecture / MoMa®

New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum in Budapest / SANAA




Our proposal for the New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum is an open extension of the City Park. The relationship between building, park and urban environment is constantly shifting as people move through a network of galleries, terraces and activity spaces.

City Park itself changes dramatically from one season to another, with its ice rinks transforming into boat lakes. Our design looks to accentuate this effect: it is not a building within a park but a place where they are one and the same. It is a museum that fluctuates with seasonal shifts. The open ground floor and sloped terraces that characterize the building allow the museums to be accessible from all sides.

Ours is a contemporary form of public space – one where city, gardens and exhibition rooms become part of an experiential whole.


Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / S A N A A

Principal:        Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa
Partner :         Rikiya Yamamoto   
Team:             Asano Yagi, Mohammed Mansoor,Kohei Kudo,
                        Tomoki Abe, Riccardo Cannata   
Role:               Architectural Designer
Stage:            Competition
Duration:       Jan 30th 2015 to 6th March 2015
Software:      Rhino, Vray, Photoshop, Vectorworks
Site :               Budapest, Hungary.
Type :             Museum, Cultural, Landscape.
Here there is an airy atrium space wrapped with terraces, ramps and walkways that provide visual connection between the galleries and social spaces. This atrium also serves as a large venue for events during the winter months when it is very cold outside. It is animated by unconventional spaces between the principal gallery boxes where we hope artists will be inspired to create site specific art pieces that dissolve the line between gallery, circulation space and exterior terraces.

The building, together with Napozórét, connects the different parts of the park, opens horizontally to blend in with the park and provides visitors with a network of routes and terraces that change across the season. The circulation paths makes an ascending park. Visitors are able to access the upper levels through external paths while passing by public museum programs like the cafe or education. The park is brought closer to the spaces within the building through the terraces. The building extends horizontally, floating low above the ground, while overhanging roofs provide shade, protection from rain and framed views of the trees. While the exhibition volumes are distributed in a grid, the slopes and roofs are distributed playfully, creating spaces between slabs and volumes that let natural light penetrate the centre of the building. Formed from a network of terraces, the edge itself is blurred and appears to dissolve into the surrounding landscape. The full height of the building is similar to that of the large surrounding trees and sits among them like an inhabited canopy and extension of this tree-scape. There are two circulation paths for the visitors - one that goes through the permanent exhibition spaces the other, a network of slopes which hold other public programs of the museum. Visitors on one of the paths can cross over into the other at any time to rest from or return to the exhibition.

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