On June 23 the winner of the competition was announced – project No. GH-04380895 – a museum made up of multiple sweeping structures and a glass‐topped tower inspired by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, all clad in glossy black wood and connected to open areas that flow into the city-space. The authors of this project were Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, a husband‐and‐wife architectural team who have practiced in Paris under the nam Moreau Kusunoki Architectes since 2011.
Moreau and Kusunoki revealed that they had already used a approach similar to the one seen in their Guggenheim proposal when working on the new Theatre of Beauvais and the University of Savoie engineering school, as well as on the Budapest National Gallery. In these they also utilized a framework of several pavilions with “in-between” spaces that give the public opportunity to move freely between the inside and outside of the building. As to why they avoided designing a building with a massive, homogenous and hermetic structure, the architect duo describe their vision so: Museum galleries need a particularly controlled atmosphere in terms of hygrometry and light. That is why most of the galleries’ walls have to be opaque. Also, the fragmented approach allows the combination of controlled and opaque rooms (the art galleries) and the in‐between spaces that provide promenades and views of the surroundings landscape. Our concept is intended to invite the public to enter into dialogue with the art, the architecture, and the site.