The winner was the Sauerbruch Hatton bureau, which had the difficult task of changing the image (and image) of Mestre and the entire mainland of the Venetian Commune with its construction. Most Italians and tourists are only interested in Venice itself, a city-museum and an international cultural center, and its municipal district seems uninteresting at best, and at worst it seems to be an unpleasant and unkempt industrial zone. This is partly true of the area adjacent to Mestre Marghera, but on the other hand, this area is one of the fastest growing in Italy and occupies a significant position in Europe: its roads and Marco Polo airport are among the busiest in the EU. Industrialization, globalization, increased migration - all this is fully reflected in this territory, and by its close connection with the present and the future, it is opposed to Venice, frozen in the past. The new museum will be dedicated to the 20th century as a century of change, in which the life of most of humanity has irreversibly changed; the spheres of demography, economics, sociology, urban planning, etc. will be affected. Moreover, it will be a cultural center with space for temporary exhibitions and educational programs, a media library with funds on the history of cinema, photography, architecture, design, advertising, etc. All this will be located in a new building with a height of no more than 30 m and an area of 8,000 m2. The adjacent historic barracks building (which was a monastery in the 16th and 18th centuries) will be converted into a shopping center, which should partially cover the costs of building the museum. The modern house located nearby will be converted into administrative premises and shops. The “M” in the name M9 means “museum”, “mostra” (exhibition in Italian), as well as mall. 9 - "nove" - a reference to the novecento, 20th century.
The initiator of the museum project, the Fondazione di Venezia Foundation, held a closed competition. The participants were selected by the architectural historian, curator of the 1991 Architecture Biennale Francesco Dal Co, in collaboration with the Architecture Institute of the University of Venice. In his opinion, all six - Massimo Carmassi, David Chipperfield, Pierre-Louis Faloci, Mansilla + Tuñón Arquitectos, Eduardo Soutu de Moura and Sauerbruch Hatton - are known for their attention to context, detail, program, have behind shoulders various reconstructions of historical monuments and projects of museum buildings. Dal Ko also emphasized that these craftsmen were not expected to be "iconic" projects, but professionally designed buildings that meet their function. At the same time, he mentioned that all participants in the competition are from different countries, which should deflect any accusations of Italocentrism from the organizers. The organizers themselves did not choose the words and directly stated that all these architects were not noticed in the design of "ridiculous" buildings, and therefore were invited to participate in the competition. What is meant by absurdity, however, is not specified.
Massimo Carmassi proposed to build the museum in the form of a composition of 16 high brick towers, round and square in plan, connected by bridges. The project resembles an archetypal medieval city or castle surrounded by bastions; among modern allusions is the Turin church of Santo Volto Mario Botta.
David Chipperfield, on the other hand, proposes to create a series of public spaces on the territory of the quarter, not the least of which will be the glazed courtyard of the former barracks; the museum itself is included in this system due to the pedestrian passage passing through its building, which is connected to the atrium. All the premises of the museum are organized around the latter. Outside, its facades are almost monolithic; the idea of accessibility is conveyed only by the colonnades of the first tier.
According to the project of Pierre-Louis Falochi, the museum is designed as an industrial type structure made of frosted glass, glowing at night and almost dissolving in the air during the day. He raised the first floor of the museum 12 meters above the ground, and completed the complex with a 30-meter tower. He also envisions covering the barracks courtyard with a glass ceiling.
Luis Mansilla and Emilio Tunion see the future building as a collection of "perfume bottles" that contain the "fragrance of the Veneto region." A new public space has been created at the foot of these glass cylinders.
Eduardo Soutu de Moura was guided in his museum project by the nearby complex of barracks: like that, it is also a rectangular block with an atrium in the middle. This layout allows you to create an uninterrupted viewing route that unites all tiers (the same will be done in the barracks when they are converted into a department store). The facades of the museum will be faced with bricks, including those obtained during the demolition of the buildings currently in this place. But the architect clarifies that this was not done for "green" reasons: such use of aged material (and not only brick, but also wood for window frames) gives richness and originality to the image of the building.
The winners of the competition, Louise Hutton and Matthias Sauerbruch, presented the project quite in the spirit of their creativity: they are known, first of all, for their experiments with color, and in the case of the M9 Museum they remained true to themselves. The facades of the museum and its auxiliary building are faced with polychrome ceramic tiles with a predominance of red and pink tones. The streamlined forms of the buildings, "parting" in front of the pedestrian to let him inside the block, into the new public space located there, are inspired, according to the architects, by Italian futurism. The brightness of the facades is shaded by areas of glazing and rough concrete.
It should be noted that Sauerbruch Hatton, being undoubtedly talented and worthy representatives of the profession, least of all suited the format set by the organizers. But they especially spoke out in their "manifesto" against architects with a pronounced style of their own, hinting that harmony with the environment is important to them above all. And, as a result, they chose the "brightest" project, which, perhaps, can be compared in the degree of originality only with the "bottles" of Mansilla and Tugnon. Obviously, the organizers of the competition for the project of the M9 museum is the case when the customer is looking for something incomprehensible to himself. It remains to be hoped that in the hands of experienced architects he will eventually come to a definite opinion.
The exhibition of competitive projects M9 / A New Museum for a New City will run on the site of the future museum until November 21, 2010.
