Nuragic and Contemporary Art Museum | Zaha Hadid Architects

The Nuragic and Contemporary Art Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects for Sardinia, Italy, will be home to exhibits celebrating the city’s rich cultural past- Nuragic civilization which stretched from the Bronze Age up until the 2^nd century CE- and its present art scene. Envisioned by the architects as ‘a node of cultural exchanges’, it is geometrically aligned along the waterfront and acts as a sea beacon for the city of Cagliari. Its association with the city is to be created through a network of publicly accessible pathways which tie the urban centre to the Museum grounds and weave in and out of the many public spaces offered in and around the structure.

courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects

Designed with a mind towards the development of coral reefs- hard and yet porous on the exterior while being an empty void on the inside, a series of voids exist internally, apparently having been ‘eroded away’, hollowed out and ready for use. The Museum is essentially composed of two skins, one within the other, and the museum resources have been slotted in-between. Like coral development, at times the new Museum will serve a more topographical role, creating new ground and adding to its landscape; at other times the structure is more emblematic, reaching up to create a new skyline for its surroundings. And in keeping with the coralline motif, the museum is to be built in phases. First the museum itself with itself own structure and interiors, and then through a cooperation with its surroundings, it will branch out beyond its walls and begin to act on surrounding landscape, reaching towards the city.