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NATURE MUSEUM – ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND

Competition 2009

Nature is increasingly understood as an interrelated system in which mankind inevitably is a part. A nature museum should make such connections visible and allow for new insights. The proposal therefore, does not follow a classical museum typology. It aims to define a new prototype for a museum in which archive and exhibition, conservation and presentation have equal value; visitors and exhibit, exterior and interior space are part of a larger whole.

The functions are concentrated on the northern edge of the site in a cubic, compact and vertically organized building volume. The generous outdoor space in front of the Church St. Maria Neudorf is thereby kept intact and is used as the link to the botanical garden.

The archival spaces are stacked like large storage containers around the vertical core. With the core they form a larger volume that organizes and structures the building.

The bearing structure is made from rolled sheets of recycled steel that have been bent into standardized U-shapes. Arranged rosswise they form the floors and ceilings, installed vertically they form outer and inner load-bearing walls. The project would require about 320t of steel, the equivalent amount of steel as contained in 530 Golf A4.

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