Museum of Ethnography Budapest by Napur

The New Museum of Ethnography was opened in Városliget, Budapest’s city park, in May this year. Városliget is not a new location for the collection. It was already here in 1896 during the Millennium Exhibition. The architect Marcel Ferencz has now erected a building specially designed for its needs for the first time.

It almost looks as if different layers of rock have risen from the ground at the Museum of Ethnography Budapest by Napur. As in a real plate shift, an unexpected landscape is created. The roof seems to be part of the city park. Trees and grass grow here, creating a passageway between the city and the park.

Hungarian architect Ferencz and his architectural firm Napur won the international competition against rivals such as Zaha Hadid and BIG. Founded in 1992, Napur is also responsible for a whole series of other large-scale projects in Hungary, including the national stadium currently under construction and the “Duna Aréna” swimming stadium.

Marcel Ferencz explains how the design for the new museum came about: “After I had rejected a thousand different ideas, a primal force suddenly seized my hand and my heart. My hand moved and an image appeared before me that I had never seen before. An upward-striving force, a folded space. I had a design. Later, when my father arrived and saw what I had drawn, he just said: ‘There it is: the new museum'”

The new building is characterized by a dynamism that is intended to be in harmony with the surrounding landscape. The curved line of the building can therefore be seen from afar. The special feature of the building: 60 percent of the building mass is below ground. This creates a roof that blends into the landscape of the city park. The design not only creates space for a normal roof garden, but for an entire roof garden landscape. This creates a completely new type of recreational area for visitors to Városliget City Park.

The curved shape of the roof is reminiscent of two hills that merge into one another. Stairs also allow access to both ends of the landscaped garden. Here you are at the height of the treetops of the city park and can look out over the city at the same time.

Another special feature are the “pixels” on the outer skin of the building. From a distance, they are reminiscent of a classic relief. Bands with various motifs also adorn the façade. A laser-cut aluminum grid forms the basic structure for this, with image motifs created by square cut-outs. At the same time, the sunlight shining through the grid friezes creates interesting shadow formations inside the new museum complex. The patterns and motifs inscribed in the grid of over a million “pixels” create an artistic link between the museum building and the collection it houses: they refer to ethnographic motifs from Hungary and around the world.

The new building now finally offers the 250,000 exhibits from the Pannonian Plain and around the world the space they need. The important collection had previously always been housed in existing buildings, most recently in the former Palace of Justice in Budapest. Now the museum has finally been given a building that is precisely tailored to its needs. The exhibits can now be displayed here in a visually appealing setting. There is now also sufficient space for the presentation of very large exhibits. The architect has created interiors with clear lines and spacious rooms. Exciting perspectives and views are created between the floors thanks to the curved shape. Exhibits can be viewed from different angles.

The glass showcases adapt to the curve of the building in the same way as the staircase. These elements create a communication between the external and internal appearance.

With this exciting design, it is no surprise that the building has already won several international architecture awards. It won the Best Mega Futura Project of Europe at the MIPIM Awards 2017 and the title of World’s Best Architecture at the International Property Awards 2018.

You can find out more about the new Museum of Ethnography Budapest here.

Also interesting in Budapest: the House of Hungarian Music by Sou Fujimoto.