Musée d'Ethnographie

Type

Culture et vie sociale, Espaces publics

Date de réalisation

2014

Ingénieur civil

Weber + Brönnimann AG, Bern

Maître de l'ouvrage

Ville de Genève

Autre(s) intervenant(s)

acau architecture SA (direction des travaux ) Hager Partner AG (architecte paysagiste) Mebatech Ingenieurbüro für Metallbautechnik AG (spécialiste de façade)

Surface brute

10'510 m2

Coût

63'490'000

Procédure

concours

Architecte

Graber Pulver Architekten

Interview de l'architecte

Descriptif

The new museum of ethnography is installed on the site of its founding, that is to say on boulevard Carl-Vogt. Whereas previously the exhibition rooms occupied the former school, which has now become the museum’s administrative offices, the architectural concept was to place the exhibition premises below ground in order to reduce to a minimum the presence of the built part. Only a folded volume emerges, whose metaphorical image indicates Asian influence. Unlike the esplanade, the last fold of the reception building seeks horizontality in relation with the scale of 19th century buildings of Les Bains district. When visitors have passed through the large overhang entrance, they have the choice between two circuits: the first upwards, to arrive at the library perched under the folded concrete slabs, pierced with large diamond shapes; the second downwards following a monumental staircase with natural overhead lighting. The exhibition rooms, distributed over two thousand square meters, can be reached by taking a second staircase to an area of artificial lighting needed for the display of collection pieces. To have a large exhibition space without pillars, the structure is supported by a series of large beams anchored in the buried perimetre walls. The façade is composed of anodised aluminium cassettes in “champagne” colour, whose diamond pattern matches the diamond-shaped openings.