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Anastasia Balezdrova 

World famous architect and professor at Columbia University in New York Bernard Tschumi is one of the creators of the new Acropolis Museum. For GRReporter readers he spoke about his latest project and the challenges that architects face very often. 

Tell us about the project in France, on which you are working at the moment. 

I hope that it will be a beautiful project. It is smaller than the Acropolis Museum, almost half of its size. But I believe it is a very interesting and beautiful project, and I am proud of it. Its concept is different. I'm not from those architects who do the same things every time. I develop my concept for each particular location. 

Barriers against the building of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens were quite a bit. There were problems with the demolition of some buildings; protest actions by citizens; the size of the construction site was reduced by a court order. How would you comment on all this today after the museum is a fact? 

Look, every building has its limitations. Every architect must be aware that he is not a sculptor or poet and he is not able to work alone in his studio or at home. An architect is surrounded by many things that restrict him, but he must learn to work within the set boundaries and even to derive advantages from them. 

The restrictions were not related only to the archaeological site or the buildings around it. There were also restrictions due to the likelihood of an earthquake, restrictions caused by change in weather conditions. All of the above helped us to be very clear about our decision. And this decision was to take the best of all restrictions. This is architecture. 

According to some of your fellow Greek colleagues the museum building would have been very different if you were available to use the whole plot. Is that so? 

I do not think the building would have been completely different. The principle of three levels, one of which is devoted to the archaeological site, the second - to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, and the middle would have looked the same. I'm sure the top part would have been also the same. Maybe there would have been slight differences but I do not think the building would have varied greatly. 

Bernard Tschumi visited Athens to participate in the scientific symposium on "The Museum of the Acropolis - Ideology, museology, architecture”, which was held in the building of the Benaki Museum on Piraeus Street. In his lecture titled "Conceptualizing Context”, he explained the importance of the surrounding environment in pursuit of an architectural idea. "The Museum of the Acropolis is very different from the museum of modern art in Bilbao, because it has history as a starting point. It is different from the pyramid, built to link the royal palace at the Louvre. In this case we have a separate building that exists. The New Acropolis Museum is very different from the building of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which was built in order to bring together different cultures with the passage of years." 

The Columbia University Professor also presented several of his works, which clearly show the way in which he and his team have built museums in harmony with the surrounding buildings. "Originally a demolition of an old building was planned in Tourcoing in order to build a new center of contemporary art in its place. When I took a closer look though, I saw that it was part of the overall architecture of the area. So we decided to restore it using almost archaeological manner and to cover it with an umbrella-like roof. This way, huge spaces between the new and the old roof of the old building were created, in which artists can create freely. The result at Le Fresnoy does not imitate the past but creates a dialogue between the old and new. 

In Sao Paulo Bernard Tschumi was challenged because he had to design a museum of contemporary art, so that it would not differ from the appearance of the big and busy city. "Our goal was for visitors to be able to view the exhibits and also to have a direct connection with the city, which lies outside. This detail exists also in the New Acropolis Museum.” 

The project, on which the world famous architect is working at the moment, is the museum and archaeological park in Burgundy. It is dedicated to the Battle of Alesia - the decisive battle in the late summer of 52 BC between Julius Caesar and the Gauls. The winner is Caesar and his victory strengthens the Roman reign in Gaul for centuries, but paradoxically, as Bernard Tschumi says, the Frenchmen believe this loss to be the starting point of the French nation creation. "Although all traces of war were erased, the new museum recreates the battlements and the trenches and actually recreates the battle.” Used for the construction were the typical for the time materials such as wood and stones, which were part of the foundations of the original buildings. "The use of materials is a very important part of the work of an architect.” The building is round, because the goal of Bernard Tschumi is to provide visitors a view of the surrounding mountains where were the fortifications of the Romans. Trees will be planted on it, which will play the role of military camouflage. 

"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.