Bauhaus Museum Dessau names two design winners

After holding an international design competition for the Bauhaus Museum Dessau, an influential German art and design school, two winners have been named, reports Dezeen.

The two proposals could not look any more different.

The first, designed by Spanish architect Gonzalez Hinz Zabala and landscape firm Roser Vives de Delás, is a rectangular black bar bridge made of glass that sits upon a glazed lower floor (pictured below).

"Our project offers playful contrasts as heaviness and lightness, opacity and transparency, system and flexibility, order and spontaneity," says the Gonzalez Hinz Zabala website.

Gonzalez Hinz Zabala's museum design. Rendering courtesy Gonzalez Hinz Zabala, via Dezeen

The second is a colorful set of structures consisting of connected pods that create walkways underneath (pictured at top). This concept was created by New York architecture studio Young & Ayata and landscape architect Misako Murata. It has a "concrete base and timber lattice frame structure clad with sintered glass tiles," according to the Young & Ayata website.

The winners were chosen by a jury that evaluated anonymously-presented submissions. It is still uncertain if the museum will declare an ultimate winner or if it will incorporate both designs, according to Dezeen.

"The two first-prize winners are very diverse," said Chris Dercon, Director of London's Tate Modern, who was quoted in the Dezeen story. "It will be a chance to start the discussion in the international public and with experts. To be the beginning of the new, Dessau and the Bauhaus are ideal places."

At an estimated budget of $1 billion, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is considered the largest museum in the world dedicated to one civilization. The superlatives don’t end there: It’s also the largest museum in Egypt, the largest Pharaonic museum in the world, and one of the world’s leading scientific, historical, and archeological study centers.