The New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum will form a vital part of Budapest’s city life. Working in complement with the symbolic and historic importance of its setting, which is also the main green area of the city, presents incredible possibilities for leisure and recreational activities, attracting both local and international attention.
Within this potent situation, the New National Gallery and the Ludwig Museum’s combined classic and modern art exhibition is strategically integrated to provide space for continual reflection, enlightenment and exchange, inspiring further creative dialogue, while enhancing a cultural experience for all visitors. The new museum must at once create a new identity, and respect its surroundings, enhancing Budapest’s heart and soul of arts and culture, within a tranquil park setting.
A graceful beacon, it neither challenges nor exists in abrupt contrast with project site’s trees and expansive grounds, but instead becomes a backdrop feature of the landscape, harnessing the gravitas of this form so akin to high culture, intellectual discourse and articulated landscape experience. The building is designed to facilitate an experience of the landscape.
Like an undulating hill, it rises gently up from the landscape, and then returns again to it. Its volume is reduced via the repetition of smaller elements - specifically, the cupola. This element not only defines the building’s relationship with its surroundings, but it also defines its exterior while also facilitating interior qualities and experiences which connect visitors with the landscape.