The British have ensured that one of the world’s greatest cultural transformations in the coming years takes place in London. As? Expanding, and altering the character, of its flagship, the. The Lebanese architect based in Paris has won – in front of 60 applicants and 5 finalists – the contest to redesign the west wing of the building. The keys? Your sensitivity. To address the complexity of collections of origin, it is not always clear, the architect and her team have proposed to mix archeology with architecture. The result is an open place, an archaeological site that investigates again, abandoning neutrality – of the – and the grandiloquence of the original neoclassical building of Rober Smirke. Thus, Ghotmeh faces from beauty and humility to the examination of the story. In their new building the textures will occupy the place of the ancient definition, the doubt will replace the roundness and natural materials will delve into the feeling of discovery and respect for what happened millions of years ago. The designer will thus address with humility what the human being and her history has been.
The archaeological site, the place of discovery and celebration, has been the space from which Ghotmeh wanted to review the function of the museum. Away from the mausoleum, the temple of knowledge, from the place of the muses or the exhibition of power, this extension proposes to rethink the nature of the museum institution. Not from a minimalist subtraction, but rather from an honest social, serene, historical and human arts of the arts. Paradoxically, an archaeological site allows to re-imagine the past and, just for that, also the future of what is found. Thus, rethinking the meaning of sculptures, belongings and achievements of two million years of history of humanity becomes a round trip lesson.
Established in Paris, Ghotmeh signed in 2016 the National Museum of. Two years ago, his study signed in Louviers, Normandy, recovering, in architecture, the crafts from which the company shows. On this occasion, the president of the jury, George Osborne, declared that in Ghotmeh they had found an architect who combines a deep sensitivity due to the history of his collection and a voice for the future. “We know that their galleries and buildings will excite our millions of visitors,” he said. Because? Because of the surprise of two centuries ago, for the seriousness and grandiloquence of the treatment the new project embraces a new familiarity, closeness and humility, maintaining the same surprise. The director of the museum, Nicholas Cullinam, highlighted the material sensitivity of the architect and the architectural transformation of the hand of intellectual transformation.
The architect, meanwhile, spoke of dialogue. Of rethinking the spaces from connections with the world. His philosophy “an archeology of the future” highlights the responsibility of what is built. Beyond the awards received during his trajectory – he dezeen for his, or the Pavilion of the Serpentine in 2023 – his workshops for Hermès were his first positive building – he must not only replenish energy consumption, but of accumulating energy. Teacher at the Harvard School of Architecture, in Toronto and Yale, Ghotmeh will also sign in the coming years the Aiuia Museum of Contemporary Art of Saudi Arabia.
