Project start:2022
Client:Ministry of Culture and Sports
User:National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Architect:David Chipperfield Architects Berlin
Visualisations:Filippo Bolognese Images
Housing one of the world’s most important collections of prehistoric and ancient art, the National Archaeological Museum was designed by Ludwig Lange and Ernst Ziller as a neoclassical building and constructed between 1855 and 1874. Taking up the equivalent of several city blocks in the densely packed Exarcheia district of Athens, the building overlooks the public space of the National Archaeological Museum Garden. The major extension was commissioned in recognition of the institution’s need to adapt to meet new standards of quality, openness and sustainability.
作为世界上最重要的史前和古代艺术收藏之一，国家考古博物馆是由路德维希·朗格和恩斯特·齐勒设计的新古典主义建筑，建于1855年至1874年间。博物馆占据了雅典Exarcheia区密集包装的若干城市街区的面积，俯瞰着国家考古博物馆花园的公共空间。主要的扩建是为了承认该机构需要适应新的质量、开放性和可持续性标准。
Drawing on the spirit of the original design – a romantic philhellenic idea of an urban landscape – the proposal creates a new setting for the monumental building. Respecting the classical hierarchy and responding to the existing topography, the plinth of the existing building is extended all the way to the street, allowing the original structure to maintain its symbolic power. In one gesture, this generates roughly 20,000 square metres of additional space including two floors of subterranean galleries, forming a fluid sequence of spaces between old and new. The public garden is raised to the new, extended plinth level, framing the original building with nature.
借鉴原始设计的精神——一个浪漫的希腊爱好者城市景观的想法——该提案为纪念性建筑创造了一个新的环境。尊重古典层次结构并响应现有地形，将现有建筑的基座延伸到街道，使原始结构保持其象征力。通过一种姿态，这产生了大约20,000平方米的额外空间，包括两层地下画廊，形成了旧与新之间流畅的空间序列。公共花园被提高到新的，扩展的基座水平，用大自然框出了原始建筑。
The extension will contain the museum’s main public-facing functions – ticketing facilities, cloakroom, shop, and restaurant, as well as an auditorium and permanent and temporary exhibitions spaces – which are organised in balance with the symmetry and axis of the historic building. The main entrance is brought forward to the street, reinforcing the museum’s relationship with the city, while the largely glazed façade offers the public views into the new building.
The plan is made up of a series of dispersed solid elements that define a fluid sequence of spaces that draw visitors towards the historic building and offer oblique views into the galleries along the way. The rammed-earth walls reinforce the excavated nature of the extension and, combined with the play of light and shadow, create the sense of subterranean caverns, forming distinctive settings for exhibiting artefacts and sculptures that contrast the historic exhibition spaces.
The museum garden provides a quiet, green public space elevated above the bustling city and is based on the ancient Greek ideal of a public gathering area for all citizens. The landscape, designed by Wirtz International, contains gravel spaces and paths, lawns, groups of Umbrella and Aleppo pines, evergreen Holm oaks and shrubs, referencing nineteenth-century parks. Accessible from all directions, it contains a sunken, sheltered inner courtyard at the centre. The monumental entrance staircase of the original building is extended into this courtyard, binding together old and new, and providing a newly defined meeting place.