According to the design by a-fact, the new museum district and the Park of Arts & Culture will create a new urban attractor, hosting a large program of public events to celebrate culture, arts and heritage. The complex will offer permanent and temporary exhibitions, research and didactic labs, informal meeting spaces, a new botanical garden and a large flexible outdoor space for venues and events that will complement the new riverfront offering breathtaking perspectives of the river and the city.
According to the jury the “composition of the three distinct yet related entities emerging gracefully from the riverbank landscape and creating a strong landmark for the city – a civic destination for both residents and visitors.
The remarkable nature of Montenegro inspires the proposal, the stone cladding pays homage to the encircling mountains while establishing a new iconic architectural language that enhances the park and river scenery”.
The remarkable nature of Montenegro inspires the proposal, the stone cladding pays homage to the encircling mountains while establishing a new iconic architectural language that enhances the park and river scenery”.
What the buildings take away from the land is returned with a generous roof that merges with the landscape and offers a new natural outdoor gathering place with wonderful views over the riverwalk. The vegetation on the roof dissolves the lines between the building and the terrain while ensuring a continuous movement across the landscape and enriching the local biodiversity.
The winning proposal is “architecture that connects culture and nature by rejoining the Morača River with the city. The new museum district and the park of arts & culture will spark Podgorica’s social life, becoming a vibrant and dynamic public attractor. The buildings promote a new paradigm of sustainability by encouraging the interaction between indoor and outdoor spaces and by exploring the contemporary use of local materials and construction techniques."
Andrea Rossi, Giovanni Sanna and Pierluigi Turco, co-founding architects of a-fact.
The landscape design generates a new river landscape connecting the river with the city, a blue-green infrastructure that incorporates existing values and improves the park's biodiversity with the retention of 290 trees, the addition of 532 new trees of different species and 900 shrubs.
Sustainability is at the heart of the proposal as the project aims to adopt and integrate passive and active environmental strategies to reduce the overall energy consumption for heating, cooling, artificial lighting and potable water use. In addition, implementing modern construction techniques combined with using local materials positively impacts the buildings’ life cycle and the overall reduction of their carbon emissions.
