Barozzi Veiga

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts

CANTONAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Barozzi Veiga

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

ARCHITECTS
Barozzi Veiga

LOCATION
Lausanne, Switzerland

CATEGORY
Museum

MUSEUM EXPERT
Bogner.cc

PROJECT LEADER
Pieter Janssens

PHOTOGRAPHS
Simon Menges

PROJECT YEAR
2019

PROJECT MANAGER
Pragma Partenaires SA

LIGHTING CONSULTANT
Matí AG

STRUCTURE ENGINEERING
Ingeni Sa

MEP
BA Consluting SA

FACADE CONSULTANT
X-made SLP

LOCAL ARCHITECT
Fruehauf Henry & Viladoms

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Fabrizio Barozzi , Alberto Veiga

DESIGN TEAM, COMPETITION PHASE
Roi Carrera, Shin Hye Kwang, Eleonora Maccari, Verena Recla, Agnieszka Samsel, Agnieszka Suchocka

DESIGN TEAM, EXECUTION PHASE
Claire Afarian, Alicia Borchardt, Paola Calcavecchia, Marta Grządziel, Isabel Labrador, Miguel Pereira Vinagre, Cristina Porta, Laura Rodriguez, Arnau Sastre, Maria Ubach, Cecilia Vielba, Nelly Vitiello

MANUFACTURERS
Keim, Armstrong Ceilings, Baswa Acoustic, Bauwerk Parkett, Cinca, Clestra Hauserman, Creation Baumann, Durlum, Design Composite Gmbh, Dietrich Isol Ag, Erco, Eutrac, Forbo Flooring Systems, Franke, Hormann, Inchfurniture, Interface, Knauf, Laufen, Rentex, +17

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

Located in the city centre, the project proposed a master plan for the city´s three main museums: the Museum of Fine Arts MCB-A, the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts MUDAC andthe Photography Museum Musée de l'Elysée.

The new Museum of Fine Arts takes place on the site’s southern edge as a longitudinal monolithic volume, parallel to the rails.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

Like the train station, it defines an urban space while protecting it from the trains’ nuisances.

Embracing this condition, the Museum of Fine Arts, the biggest of the three museums, carries and expresses the memory of the site, echoing to the former industrial condition of the site with pragmatic forms, rigorous geometry and hard, sharp lines.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

The opportunity to create an urban void led to demolition of part of the existing train hall. However, the preservation of the memory of a place is achieved through the preservation of fragments.

The overall building is relatively hermetic, to protect the collections of the museum, and hence has a closed, introverted façade to the rails, on the south, and a more open, permeable, animated façade on the north.

The ground floor was developed as the extension of the public plaza and thus shelters the main social programs.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

Once within the foyer, the saved fragment reveals its full role as a substantial structuring component of the new MCBA.

The complexity of the program is solved in a very simple and synthetic way, five cores structure the program at every level but also help as a structural constructive elements and contain the form of the building.

The museum is organized on three floors connected by the continuous void of the foyer that structures the circulation.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

On the ground floor contains all the social functions of the program: foyer, bookshop, restaurant, auditorium and temporary gallery for contemporary art.

The façade on that level is very porous, for these internal functions to be in continuity with the exterior public space of the plaza.

On the higher levels, on both sides of the foyer, are organized the exhibition spaces.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

The building offers two facades, one opaque to the south and a more open and animated to the north, creating a dialogue with the new plaza.

The North façade’s light exposure is minimized by deep vertical fins in between which are pierced tall and large windows.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

The fins are designed to prevent direct sunlight from ever entering the light-sensitive zones of the building.

The upper floor is naturally lit from north oriented modular sheds designed to filter and adjust the solar light.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

The sheds possess an internal system of blinds to allow a meticulous control of the amount of light entering the rooms as well as the possibility of a dimmed atmosphere.

The brick facades evoke the industrial history of the site and offer a texture, a vibrant pattern to the monolith.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

On the plaza, the vertical blinds’ rhythm break the massiveness of the monolith and reveal the openings.

At night, the blinds serve as a canvas to diffuse the light coming from the museum, transforming the façade to the plaza.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges

The founding idea of the plazas’ urban design is to create an exterior public space in dialogue with the museums.

Like the buildings, it integrates fragments of its industrial past, the rails and the turning plate.

Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
© Simon Menges


Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
South Elevation
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
North Elevation


Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Ground Floor Plan
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
First Floor Plan 
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Second Floor Plan


Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Project situation plan
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Actual situation plan
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Urban Plan
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Urban Plan  


Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Short Section 
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Short Section 
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Short Section 
Cantonal Museum Of Fine Arts
Short Section 

Barozzi Veiga
T +34 932 152761
Barozzi Veiga
C/ de Bailèn, 36, L'Eixample, 08010 Barcelona, Spain