Opening of Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava
18/12/2015.
The Museum of Tomorrow [Rio de Janeiro] Brazil
metalocus, GONZALO CANDEL
metalocus, GONZALO CANDEL
Rio de Janeiro is celebrating the opening of the Museu do Amanhã (The Museum of Tomorrow) this week. The museum, built on the Pier Mauá, features a cantilevering roof that stretches 75 m over the 7,600 sqm of museum's plaza and 45 m towards the sea.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.a. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa. Click above to see larger image.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.latrava. Photograph @ Thales Leite. Click above to see larger image.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.trava. Fotografía @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
Museu do Amanhã by Santiago Calatrava. Photograph @ Bernard Miranda Lessa.
The contemporary science museum, which has taken five years to build, is located in the city centre’s Porto Maravilha district -the site of the largest urban development project in Brazil.
The Museum of Tomorrow will allow the public to see the future of Rio and how it will evolve in the next 50 years, looking at climate change, population growth and the fields of matter, life and thoughts.
Exploring across two floors and 5,000sq m of exhibition space, visitors can participate in 27 experiments and 35 ‘sub-experiences’ based around the concepts of Earth, the cosmos and the passage of time.
"The city of Rio de Janeiro is setting an example to the world of how to recover quality urban spaces through drastic intervention and the creation of cultural facilities such as the Museum of Tomorrow and the new Museum of Art. This vision led us, in our first designs, to propose the addition of a plaza outside the Museum. The plaza creates a more cohesive urban space and reflects the neighborhood’s greater transformation.
The idea is that the building feels ethereal, almost floating on the sea, like a ship, a bird or a plant. 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," said Santiago Calatrava.
Porto Maravilha is at the heart of Rio’s socioeconomic development ambitions, and its regeneration was among the commitments made by the Brazilian government for the 2016 Olympic Games. The area, which stretches 5 million sqm, is being developed into one of the city’s most attractive locations. New public space is being created, 15,000 trees are being planted, while new cultural sites, including the Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro, will soon join the Museum of Tomorrow in the area.
The museum has been awarded the highest standard of LEED certification for its sustainable elements. The permanent exhibition space is housed in the building's top floor. It features a 10-meter-high roof that frames panoramic views of Guanabara Bay.
The cost of the museum has not been revealed. The project was developed by the municipality of Rio de Janeiro and the Roberto Marinho Foundation. It received sponsorship from Santander bank and energy firm BG Brazil, plus funding from the government's department of the environment.
More information
SANTIAGO CALATRAVA
Santiago Calatrava (Valencia, 1951) Born in 1951 in Valencia. Trained at the School of Fine Arts and Crafts in Valencia, where he studies at the newly opened Higher Technical School. In 1975, he joined the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, obtaining a doctor's degree in 1981. In this city he established his first architecture studio and it is here that he obtained the first prize-winning participation in 1983, for the design and construction of the Station of Zurich train
His training as an artist, architect and engineer drives him to build a global work of art which gives all his works a great wealth and multiplicity of connotations. In 1984, Calatrava, designed and built the Bach de Roda Bridge in Barcelona. This is the beginning of the successive bridge projects that will be carried out later and that give him his great reputation as an international architect and engineer.
Calatrava establishes the second office of his firm in Paris, in 1989, while working on the project of the Lyon airport station, France (1989-1994) The third office places it in the city of Valencia, in 1991, to facilitate your last job: a huge cultural complex and urban intervention in the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia.
Since 2000 some of his most outstanding projects are: the expansion of the Milwakee Museum of Art, Wisconsin, USA (2001), the first building that Calatrava made in the United States; the Olympic Sports complex in Athens, Greece (2004) or the Fourth Bridge over the Grand Canal, Venice Italy (2008). He is currently working on design and construction projects worldwide, including the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York or the recently opened Peace Bridge in Calgary (2012). There are innumerable awards received by Santiago Calatrava, among others the Medal of Merit of Fine Arts, of the Spanish Ministry of Culture (1996) and Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (1999).
