The museum is housed in a cast-iron exhibition pavilion, originally built for an international art and industrial exhibition in Düsseldorf in 1902 and later acquired by the Mexican authorities. The building was reassembled in Mexico City and long served as the Museum of Natural History, before being donated to the Chopo Museum in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 21st century, there was a need for another restoration of the historical building, which it was decided to combine with a large-scale reconstruction. Enrique Norten and his bureau TEN were to make the century-old building ideal for a 21st century museum, renowned for its breadth of activities, including ballet, film and other non-visual arts.
Inside the historic building, new spaces were created, enclosed in rectangular volumes of concrete and frosted glass, connected by stairs and bridges. The openwork metal walls of the monument received an inner layer of bright white panels, a new lighting system was created, glass with UV filters was inserted into the windows.
The clients called Norten's project "a new architectural interpretation of the monument of the early 20th century." In addition to arranging six exhibition halls in the building, a forum hall for 216 seats and a cinema hall for 132 spectators, a library, an archive and information center, classrooms for ballet classes, visual arts, etc., as well as a new administrative building behind the museum, the architect made his own resource efficient construction. Solar panels are installed on the roof, which will provide 25% of the electricity required by the institution, and a system for collecting and filtering rainwater is also arranged, which will be used in bathrooms, for irrigating green spaces and enriching groundwater (in total, this will save 3 million liters per year) …
