The Museu do Amanhã, or Museum of Tomorrow, opened Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Designed by architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, the museum most notably has a large skeletal roof that juts off of each side of the structure. A 75-meter overhang extends over the plaza that wraps around the building, and a 45-meter extension elevates above Guanabara Bay. The wings, combined with a reflection pool that surrounds the building, make it look like the building is floating.
"The idea is that the building feels ethereal, almost floating on the sea, like a ship, a bird, or a plant,” Calatrava said in a statement. “Because of the changing nature of the exhibits, we have introduced an archetypal structure inside the building. This simplicity allows for the functional versatility of the Museum, able to accommodate conferences or act as a research space.”
The museum has 5,000 sm of exhibition space and a 7,000-sm plaza. The lower level contains offices, educational and research facilities, and an auditorium, along with a museum store, a restaurant, lobby, archives, and storage. Permanent exhibitions are housed upstairs.
As the name implies, the museum addresses issues that affect the future of humanity, including topics like population growth, climate change, and the distribution of wealth. Fittingly, it carries over some of the themes of sustainable design into its structure. Adjustable PV panels can be positioned for optimal sunlight throughout the day, and water from the bay regulates the building’s interior temperature and provides water for the reflecting pools.
The goal is for the museum to revitalize its neighborhood, Porto Maravilha. Museu do Amanhã "is the result of a consistent dialogue,” Calatrava said. “The building was built to be a museum for the future, and an educational unit."
Related Stories
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 15, 2014
First look: 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to first-responders, survivors, 9/11 families [slideshow]
The 110,000-sf museum is filled with monumental artifacts from the tragedy and exhibits that honor the lives of every victim of the 2001 and 1993 attacks.
| May 13, 2014
19 industry groups team to promote resilient planning and building materials
The industry associations, with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, have issued a joint statement on resilience, pushing design and building solutions for disaster mitigation.
| May 13, 2014
Libeskind wins competition to design Canadian National Holocaust Monument
A design team featuring Daniel Libeskind and Gail Dexter-Lord has won a competition with its design for the Canadian National Holocaust Monument in Toronto. The monument is set to open in the autumn of 2015.
| May 11, 2014
Final call for entries: 2014 Giants 300 survey
BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 survey forms are due Wednesday, May 21. Survey results will be published in our July 2014 issue. The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
| Apr 29, 2014
USGBC launches real-time green building data dashboard
The online data visualization resource highlights green building data for each state and Washington, D.C.
| Apr 24, 2014
Unbuilt and Famous: LEGO releases box set of Bjarke Ingels' LEGO museum
LEGO Architecture has created a box set that customers can use to build replicas of the LEGO Museum, which is not yet built in real life. The museum, designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, will commemorate the history of LEGO.
| Apr 18, 2014
Multi-level design elevates Bulgarian Children's Museum [slideshow]
Embodying the theme “little mountains,” the 35,000-sf museum will be located in a former college laboratory building in the Studenski-grad university precinct.
| Apr 16, 2014
Upgrading windows: repair, refurbish, or retrofit [AIA course]
Building Teams must focus on a number of key decisions in order to arrive at the optimal solution: repair the windows in place, remove and refurbish them, or opt for full replacement.
| Apr 15, 2014
12 award-winning structural steel buildings
Zaha Hadid's Broad Art Museum and One World Trade Center are among the projects honored by the American Institute of Steel Construction for excellence in structural steel design.