Studio Campo Baeza, a Madrid structure agency, and MAODA, an Ecuadorian workplace, had been named first place winners by Ecuador’s Ministry of Schooling, Sports activities and Tradition of a contest to design a brand new $100 million flagship for the Nationwide Museum of Ecuador (MuNA).
For the reason that announcement on July 6, the competitors outcomes have been the topic of an ongoing controversy taking maintain of Quito. AN emailed MuNA for remark.
The profitable design is titled “Echos del Sol,” which interprets to Echoes of the Solar. It was “conceived as a field of sunshine and shadow,” in line with the architects.
Renderings of the profitable design present, fairly actually, a concrete field with giant apertures rising upward from La Carolina Park, a historic civic area, with a secondary quantity serving as the primary entry level.
Barcelona-based B720 Arquitectos and Lera had been named the second place winners. In third place was SANAA, Caá Porá Arquitectura, Estudio A0, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Panorama.
The competitors’s three finalists had been chosen from a pool of 148 preliminary candidates from over 20 international locations. Of the 148 candidates, 17 superior to the final part, culminating within the remaining three.
Alejandro Zaera-Polo, whose deanship of the Princeton College of Structure was marred by controversy for alleged misogyny and racism, was among the many competitors jurors.
Memes, Memes, the Magical Fruit
MuNA is presently positioned within the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana constructing. Development is slated to interrupt floor on its new flagship in 2027.
Studio Campo Baeza and MAODA had been introduced the competitors winners on Monday, July 6. On July 9, Ecuador’s Vice Minister of Tradition and Heritage Romina Muñoz resigned. After Muñoz resigned, MuNA’s government director Carlos Eduardo Montalvo Puente additionally stepped down.
Muñoz resigned following public criticism of a remark she made defending the primary place design: “This goes past aesthetic preferences,” she mentioned.
The Ecuadorian authorities has not confirmed the explanation for Muñoz’s resignation. AN emailed Ecuador’s Ministry of Schooling, Sports activities and Tradition for remark.
Muñoz’s remark sparked criticism as a result of the profitable design was derided by the general public for its boxy and minimalist look, sentiment encapsulated in memes ridiculing the proposal, together with one which factors out its visible similarities to a earlier Campo Baeza venture.
One interlocutor in contrast Campo Baeza’s proposal to a cardboard field. One other overlaid dystopian Salvador Dalí references onto a rendering of the constructing, with a melting clock, grey skies, and lightning rods. In one other visible critique, one observer traced a drawing of DoodleBob, a menacing cartoon character from the SpongeBob Squarepants universe, onto the rendering.
Muñoz had been lively within the MuNA competitors since 2023. Beforehand she was government director of the Nationwide Museum of Ecuador.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has distanced himself from the venture he beforehand championed, in line with a supply near the controversy.
Again to the Drawing Board?
Whereas the profitable design was met with criticism, the second and third place designs have had constructive reception on social media.
The second place design by B720 Arquitectura and Lera is titled “Typography of Reminiscence.” Compositionally, the design is a low-lying construction with volumes that protrude outward, creating dynamic shadow strains.
The facade is outlined by ample glazing, on the underside half, and opaque massing on the higher half.
The third place design by SANAA, Caá Porá Arquitectura, Estudio A0, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Panorama is titled “Dwelling Strata,” and is impressed by pro-Columbia and post-Columbia cultures.
“Dwelling Strata,” per a design assertion, celebrates the “synthesis between range and unity, between panorama and tradition, between the ancestral and the modern.” It emphasizes “collective reminiscence, gathering, and reference to the cosmos.”
Qube Media, a neighborhood outlet, launched a ballot to gauge public opinion of the profitable design and sentiment for different proposals.
There’s additionally a petition launched by members of the general public calling upon the Ecuadorian authorities to reverse the choice and select a special design.
The petition has nearly 20,000 signatories and counting. It has three primary issues: a perceived lack of landscaping and connection to La Carolina Park, a scarcity of reference to the nation’s “nationwide identification,” and a scarcity of technical and monetary transparency.
That is an ongoing story.
