What a wonderful name and theme for a museum: The Museum of Image and Sound. Whoa, did you feel that rush of wind and the trumpet sound? It is quite the profound name, and I daresay, the building might just match up to its lofty emblem.
The competition for the design of this new museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was won by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Included within the program will be galleries, an auditorium, education rooms and spaces, a cafe, bars and restaurant (did you catch that there are multiple bars?), and a rooftop outdoor cinema. Below is a further, more in-depth description by the architects. Enjoy.
Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The architecture of the Museum of Image and Sound takes Copacabana Beach as its inspiration: its coastline, its wraparound building wall, its mountains, and its distinctive beach promenade designed by Roberto Burle Marx. The promenade captures the key element of the beach—a space of the public in motion—on foot, bicycle and automobile. The building is conceived as an extension of that boulevard, stretched vertically into the museum.
The “Vertical Boulevard” gestures toward inclusiveness: it gently traverses indoor and outdoor spaces and branches to make galleries, education programs, spaces of public leisure and entertainment. The building inherits the DNA of Burle Marx but radically reorients his public surface upward into a thickened façade for the new museum.
Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The vertical circulation sequence connects the street with the building’s entertainment programs—from the clerestory view into the Auditorium at street level, to the elevated Terrace Bar and Cafe, the Piano Bar at the third level, the Restaurant at the sixth, and outdoor cinema at the roof.
Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro
The building is also conceived as an instrument to observe the city in a new way. The panoramic view before it, overexposed to tourists in the hotels and restaurants of Copacabana Beach while restricted for many residents, is perhaps the central image at stake. Through framing strategies, the skin of the MIS curates this view for the visitor moving through the gallery sequence.
Matt Davis is a Virginia Tech graduate and one of the founding editors behind Arch2O. Launching the platform in mid‑2012 alongside fellow Hokies, he helped shape its identity as an international hub for design innovation and critical dialogue . With a foundation in architectural education and a passion for uncovering unconventional design approaches, Matt has contributed significantly—both editorially and strategically—to Arch2O’s growth, ensuring that emerging architects, academics, and creatives have a space to question, explore, and elevate the built environment.