New Akropolis Museum

New Akropolis Museum

Athens finally has its new modern Akropolis Museum for its vast collection of sculptures and artifacts from ancient Greece. The $200 million building of glass and concrete is situated on the South Eastern slope of the Acropolis hill, on that ancient road that led up to the “sacred rock” in classical times… and that was closed to me when I visited this majestic site almost exactly 5 years ago, just before the Olympic Games opened in the city they belong to!

Realizing this cherished brainchild of Konstantinos Karamanlis and Melina Merkouri - who was the first to suggest that the Elgin Marbles be renamed ‘The Parthenon Marbles’ - was a long journey…

The international competition was initially launched in 1989 – and eventually the design of currently New York-based Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi – in collaboration with Greek architect Michael Photiadis – was selected as the winning project.

In his architectural concept, Tschumi concentrated on “… light, movement (circulation), and a tectonic and programmatic element, which together turn the constraints of the site into an architectural opportunity, offering a simple and precise museum” with the mathematical and conceptual clarity of ancient Greek buildings.”

Living at the end of the world with not much possibility nowadays to see the latest archtiectural master pieces as I used to in my years in Europe, I especially enjoyed this 3D journey through the model, which shows strict adherence to the concept :

Clearly. . . this is the ONLY place where the “Parthenon Marbles” belong.

When do we wake up and understand the. . .  WHOLE. . . and its vibration?

Bianca Gubalke

PS: Don’t see the video above? Click HERE.

And HERE is the majestic result – opened today!

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Tags: Athens, Greece, New Akropolis Museum

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Architecture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.