"I knew the history of Greece and I had visited the country when I was a student studying architecture. But the place where the museum was to be built was a great revelation for me. It is located about 300 meters from the Parthenon and the Acropolis. This fact alone is disturbing enough for any architect. How can you build something so close to the most influential building in the history of Western architecture?
The second challenge was that the place was already filled with buildings, then the subway was built and new archaeological findings were popping out constantly. On third place was the subtext that some of the Parthenon marbles are in London and at some point they can return back to Greece. These three things were my context."
According to Bernard Tschumi architecture is expressed in three words - concepts, percepts and affects. He cited the thought of Immanuel Kant that "concepts are empty without perception and perceptions without concepts are blind" and after that he explained how decisions have been taken for the appearance of the New Acropolis Museum. "We wanted to show the findings and so we decided that the building must be “floating" on them. Geographically the building is located below the Acropolis, so the top of the building is glass and gives the possibility to view the Parthenon. The front wall of the museum is parallel to the street that passes in front of it." The idea of the architects was for the new and old to communicate with each other naturally. On one hand visitors can examine the exhibits and on the other they are able to view the modern Athens. The choice of concrete, as the main construction material, is also important. "We wanted to give a sense of stability. It was very interesting to watch the big construction machines and next to them the archaeologists who worked with their little brushes digging up treasures from the soil.”
The exhibits in the New Acropolis Museum are placed so as to communicate with visitors and with each other. "They are perfect. The marble is very beautiful and did not want to hide it behind a plastic partition," said Bernard Tschumi and explained that in the inside of the museum he followed the format of the Parthenon itself and used the light to its maximum.
Less than two years after its official opening on June 20, 2009 the New Acropolis Museum was pronounced as "the best museum in the world" on a competition held by the association of travel journalists in the UK. Only the first three months after the opening ceremony it was visited by one million visitors. During this short period it managed to establish itself as one of the main attractions in the Greek capital, which attracts the interest of visitors from around the world.
Greece expected this museum for 33 years. During this time conducted were two unsuccessful tenders and in 1979 the first timid protests appeared against its construction. "Big projects always have enemies. The phenomenon is so common that in English it is called “nimby”, which comes from the first letters of the words “not in my back yard”. The same happened with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which constructed, thanks to a signed agreement during a time of protests and this museum is now considered a peak of architecture,” said archaeologist Ersi Filipopoulou. She analyzed the most important events that have contributed to the implementation of the decision to build the museum and said: "Voting for the continuation of the project in the Supreme Court in 2004 was more than important. With a difference of only one vote, today, the museum could have not existed." According to her, though, the most important point lies in the distant 1982, when the museum was linked directly with the idea of Melina Mercouri for the return of all marbles of the Parthenon to Greece. The places of the missing pieces are now empty and are awaiting their return, together with the sixth Caryatid.
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
