Museum of Ethnography, Budapest Hungary Competition 2013

The Museum of Ethnography in Budapest explores the idea of a Stoic figure with a magical interior. The form of the building is a simple extrusion of the site allowing the building to negotiate between the urban edge of the site and the supple geometries of the park while allowing the city’s public transportation system to slip between the edge of the Museum and the park, feeding both with visitors. The massiveness of the building is softened by the fact that it is made out of glass block that will glimmer in the sunlight and become a glowing beacon in the park at night. The filleted geometry of the corners is used to produce two cuts in the building that allows for entry into the building as well as functioning as gateways to the park. It’s at these two gateways that it is revealed that just beyond its glimmering monotone glass block exterior is another glass wall that fills the interior with a mosaic of colored light made from patterns linked to Hungary’s cultural history.