Museums designed by renowned architects will open their doors this year around the world. Here is a selection of them.
National Museum of Qatar, Qatar
After the triumph of the Abu Dhabi Louvre, Jean Nouvel inaugurated the National Museum of Qatar: an opportunity for the Parisian architect to unveil a long string of roses from the concrete sands. Sculptural and exceptional, the 52,000 square meters building runs for nearly a kilometer and a half along the cornice, facing the sea; it encloses, in the center, the historic palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani (son of the founder of modern Qatar).
Its galleries will present the history of the country, but also the works of contemporary artists from the region. “Everything is designed to make you feel the desert and the sea together. The architecture of the museum, its structure, are symbolic of the mysteries of concretions, of the crystallization of the desert and one will guess the intersections of the sharpened petals of the sand roses”, explains Jean Nouvel.
The Shed, New York
New York applauds the talent of the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which the High Line Park has revealed worldwide. A significant new building on the High Line, The Shed is a 2,500 m2 art center for visual arts, artistic performances, and popular culture. Its gigantic retractable roof allows to (un)cover a 1,500 m2 stage space that will host an original production of Björk for the opening, and five nights of screenings dedicated to the director Steve McQueen. Also produced by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the expected extension of MoMA on the occasion of its 90th anniversary will give the institution a new lease of life. The exhibition galleries on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th floors will extend to the adjacent building, designed by Jean Nouvel. Opening planned for October 2019.
Humboldt Forum, Berlin
Considered the most important museum project in Europe, the Humboldt Forum is part of the course of German history because of its location. The site? The one occupied successively by Berlin Castle, destroyed during the Second World War, then by the Palace of the former GDR. The large cultural center designed by the Italian architect Franco Stella will come to life on 14 September 2019, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the birth of the naturalist, geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859).
Expected to be completed a decade ago, the institution – which aims to recreate the former Baroque palace of the Hohenzollern on three of its façades and dome – will take over the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art (covering more than 96,000 m2, inaugurated in two phases) and expand into the cultures of the world.
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