Entrance to the Detmold Open air museum

An open-air museum is a journey through time. It creates the illusion of transporting the visitor to another era. The visitor immerses himself in a place that has been preserved, recreating its past down to the last detail. Any new and discordant element can break this illusion and spoil it at any moment. We propose not to build so as to preserve the atmosphere of the place. Building landscape. Taking advantage of the sloping site to locate all the necessary uses of the programme through a fold in the terrain. Concealing the programme to make it less disturbing. The form is in the past of the place. An old engraving reveals a circular shape that may have existed near the mausoleum. A form that belongs to the place and is not unfamiliar. Starting from this geometric shape, we built a circular void, a new access square to the museum, which builds a large porch and suggests the gesture of welcoming the visitor with open arms. The visitor will penetrate the ground and, following the light, get to the circular elevators or the helicoidal ramp that unfolds little by little as it reaches the surface. A journey that takes us from the outside to the darkness, back to the light of the surface. Only one material: earth Or what is the same, concrete. Concrete that will build the walls, the ceilings, the pavements, the skylights. Concrete that will age at the same pace as the place. Absorbing life through all its pores. As if it had always been part of that place.

Programme : Culture, Museum
Location : Detmold, Germany  
Client : Detmold Open air museum  
Architect : Jordi Badia
Dates : 2018
Surface : 4.730 m2   
Status : Competition