New Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania

Zaha Hadid Architects had beat out two modern architecture for the next installation of the Guggenheim Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. The competition was a collaborative partnership between Guggenheim Foundation and Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the new museum will house collections from both of the prominent museums. 

Lithuania plans to make the museum the focal point of Vilnius, as European Capital of Culture in 2009. Making a mark, as a horizontal force on the city’s vertical skyline.

“The building appears like a mystical object floating above the extensive artificial landscape strip, seemingly defying gravity by exposing dramatic undercuts towards the surrounding entrance plazas.”

“A glossy metallic building envelope registers the underlying main programmatic units, which are articulated as inlays within the compact overall form. The sub volumes are expressed through folds and protrusions in the facades modulation, creating multiple ways of reading the building as a whole that is constituted by its integral parts.”

I'm not sure I agree with their final selection out of the three choices, but they're all very innovative to say the least. Certainly leaving a great imprint in the future of architecture. 

What do you think?

Below are the runner ups for the Guggenheim Vilnius Museum:

Daniel Libeskind

Massimiliano Fuksas

Here's a photo of all three architects: Winner, Zaha Hadid in the middle, flanked by Fuksas and Libeskind

story via Dezeen
images via VTV.lt

Comments

[Hege]

Gosh, really stylish. Architecture and art hand in hand... I`m going to Bilbao for the summer, guess who`s going to visit the Guggenheim museum... I love modern history:-)Hege

[Matthew Kerr]

It's a great drawing, a great render, and i wonderful graphic, but a few things worry me:

This is the first Hadid project where i felt like i'd seen it before. I wonder if, in making a graphic, an object and a 'piece of art', the ego of the architect, and town have created an object which doesn't respond to program, or any cultural context.

The fact that there are virtually no interior renders or plans leads me to think that this competition wasn't won based on who would have created the best museum, but who would have created be most modern graphic architecture for the town.

That may have been fresh in the days of Bilbao, but maybe this project should serve as a catalyst for a new discussion on museums, and ask wether it is the silver facade which defines the museum, or the spaces within which allow for art to be.

I'm sure that this will be a fine museum, but maybe it serves as a bell ringer for the new age of the selfless museum - something which this may be the antithesis of.