Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au have been commissioned to design the new Art Museum Strongoli in Calabria, Italy.
The museum is to be built on top of the Motta Grande overlooking the city.
Here’s some text from the architects:
The new Art Museum Strongoli in Calabria is the third COOP HIMMELB(L)AU project in Italy. The museum is not only a cultural center but also understood as a generator for a future development of Calabria, a place for cultural entertainment and recreation.
The Art Museum is situated on the top of the “Motta Grande” hill in front of the city, visible from far away. The new museum houses not only flexible exhibition spaces, but also a small “multi-hall” and a panorama restaurant.
The project is a composition of three main elements: the emblematic, cone-shaped construction with the entrance is orientated towards the city, while the cantilevering restaurant at the opposite end of the building offers a panoramic terrace facing the sea in the east. Both public attractors are linked by a two-storey exhibition volume.
The exhibition areas are determined to be as flexible as possible, supported by underground service facilities accessed via two elevators. The multi-hall can be used as temporary exhibition space, lecture hall, auditorium and cinema or simply as an extension space of the foyer for public events.
More Dezeen stories about
Coop Himmelb(l)au:
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China Insurance Group Headquarters, Shenzhen
Zarautz Scenic Arts center, Spain
Museum of Contemporary Art & Planning Exhibition, Shenzhen
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Posted by Megan Wilton
March 27th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Absolutely no respect for the landscape. The only design element that could make this building work would be a landslide.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:10 am
crazy.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:45 am
seconded
March 27th, 2009 at 11:49 am
I like some of their work , but this one is Ugly .. sorry !
March 27th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Terrible contrast. It´s like a wound in the nature.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
amazingly absurd… looks like some kind of alien spaceship.
refreshingly daft.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
The other has landed!!
March 27th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
AWESOME!!!
All architecture should be this challenging and exciting and it’s great to see that some people have the balls to project their life energy in their buildings!
Can’t wait to see the plans and the interior!
KEEP IT UP!
March 27th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
very bad refry from Mosku Guadalajara….
March 27th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I think this is stunning. Its beautiful and unsettling at the same time.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
fabulous,
i love those big bold co op himmelblau moves. few do it better.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
fabulous,
i love those big bold co op himmelblau moves. few do it better.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Initially, yes, this design appears to not respect the landscape. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t respond to it. This structure, like Meier’s Smith House or Eisenman’s House VI, serves as a foil for the landscape. It’s a less direct and less literal form of respect for the landscape, and more difficult to execute as well I think.
That being said, the structure appears to be far too large for the site, if it were scaled to half size, it would look more appropriate.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Fishe Price ‘My First Render’.
March 27th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
coop himmelblau is sort of turning into the “frank gehry wannabe style” more and more a little late in the game…
March 27th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I’m not terribly fond of Coop Himmelb(l)au, they appear to do stuff without reason. Again in this text (from the architects themselves) there is no explanation why this form.
Take their museum in Lyons, there is no relation of the interior form with the exterior form(the skin of the building) at all. If they have the same approach here I will not like the building.
The cantilever is impressive though, I’m wondering how they will deal with that.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
simply poetic, designed with context as if to greet the landscape surrounds.
brilliant.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
looks like sculture….
March 27th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
hah, whatever, i love it
March 27th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Impressive. It must be the longest overhanging building I’ve seen. The strong contrast with natural elements will surely give them some troubles, but I think it was what they wanted…
March 27th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
It’s telling that there are no INTERIOR views. What does it feel like to OCCUPY the space?
March 27th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
the form so wildly disconnected from the function these days. refreshingly daft is right
March 27th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
stooooooooooooooopid!
March 27th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
another generic “cool” building for the folks. lets hope they never actually build it
March 27th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Italy have always had an absurd policy of funding bizarre projects. Calabria is a region of Italy in financial despair, which is supported by tax payers in the Industrial more northern regions of Italy. It’s main source of income is tourism and agriculture. I don’t think Calabria need’s another tourist attraction at this moment in time when there are more important issues that are progressing at snails pace. Inject that money in the southern regions to create a more sustainable economy that is independent from the north and it’s financial aid.
I think the building in question is interesting and the approach and identity of the project seem quite clear but it does in my opinion detract rather than add to the landscape.
March 27th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
why is it there?
March 27th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
why is this posted on dezeen?
March 27th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
This is such a slap in the face to the beauty of the surrounding nature. Absolutely doesn’t tie in with the serenity of the place. Maybe the structure would work some other place, but not there.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
crazy, very crazy. Cool and diferent.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
renders 1 and 3 look like the profile of a bird pecking at a pile of seeds. i dont know what that means…?
March 27th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Big Dong on the Mountain
March 27th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
which one is gehry’s ..which one is prix’s hard to tell…they all are running close in their designs..
March 28th, 2009 at 12:46 am
.
omfg! brilliant!
March 28th, 2009 at 1:47 am
Where’s Frank Lloyd Wright when you need him?
March 28th, 2009 at 2:40 am
Another Frank Gehry??
hope to see some photos about internal space….
March 28th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Tim and Kanwal: this is so far from Gehry…
Snow: I’m with you! stunning… God save Wolf D. Prix!
March 28th, 2009 at 4:25 am
i agree with an earlier comment by Justin, who thinks it looks like its overscaled… half size would be better.
good luck with that cantilever.
March 28th, 2009 at 5:06 am
just creating some crazy curve and then cladding it with metal skin does not mean it is a good design. we have enough of it by gehry and libeskind.
March 28th, 2009 at 8:00 am
let the landscape be landscape and buildings be buildings…no need for buildings to be landscape, landscape does landscape best!!
dont like COOP HIMMELB(L)AU but this is fun!!
March 28th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
wow… i’m all for crazy modern design but this is just funky.
March 28th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
insane
March 28th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
they have just wasted such a beautiful site by putting this crap on it
March 28th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
basta!
March 29th, 2009 at 1:11 am
once you occupy the top of the hill you lose the hill
… in this case you lose a huge piece of natural landscape
hopefully it won’t get built
March 29th, 2009 at 2:25 am
our planet will soon being conquered by aliens…hahaha..this is my 1st expression n opinion when i saw this picture…it may appreciate and worked after i died and that will b 2060++…haha
March 29th, 2009 at 5:43 am
No, Gehry is a structure retard.
This is another work Prix has managed to do that extemds the Viennese tradition of defying gravity through compositional arrangement, location and structure. Although the setting is the most stark compared to their other projects, I feel confident that the landscape design will work well. Phalus metaphors aside, this structure has an uncanny resemblance to sea shells in both scale and form.
March 29th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
The Social climate is undertaking such a huge change but it seems that these chaps haven’t yet realised..
Respect for Coop Himmelb(l)au, though I am nostalgic of the time they use to be avant-garde and understood the world they are living in.
March 29th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
The name of the Italian location mentioned abouve is actually STROMBOLI!
…not Strongoli, it’s funny!!
March 29th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
sorry, I meant above!
March 30th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Very good….
March 30th, 2009 at 7:03 am
well i think you can look at this proposal on different angles… its easy to bash this building cause of the expressive forms and the formal similiarities to late hadid/ghery stuff… imho here we got some more matureness inside and the result is a well sophisticated project! as for the landscape – building dialogue this works so well! cant imagine how this should be “design without respect”? what is more respectfull then foldings and smooth forms in this context with hills and vegetation? a box? please dont make me laugh… now they need to show us how the interior spaces will work and how they will profit from this form then i am very happy and start feeling more hopefull for expressive post-deconstructivism-designs… i like it! looks like coop found back the their old strenghts with a nice tad of provocation and challange inside their projects!
March 30th, 2009 at 7:44 am
just to give a hint for those who think it does not respond to the landscape: think of the PLATEAU >> WIND and a form that is created by this natural force.
it is a strong claim, true.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Dude,
One word:
Public School 9
Los Angeles California
March 30th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
simply awful…how many of these so called designs are going to be built nowadays? seems pretty derivative to me…maybe the interiors will meet out, but the problem with these sculptural designs, is that they are designed “outside – in”, meaning the programme is crammed into the interior to fit the form; experientially, its no longer about the art it houses…
self-referential and simply a regurgitation of the ‘blobitecture’ of the mid nineties…I hope it joins a similar fate of that ‘movement’
March 30th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
got used to it…
March 31st, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Stunning and I love it. the contrast of nature and futurism is perfect. Itlaians are known for good desing, and this is a perfect scenerio where contrasts works beautifully.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
This guy, and others, were the avant-garde… 25 years ago. The only thing that actually evolved in most of their practices during this time is the instruments used by their poorly paid interns…
Now, this kind of maximalist design comes as pretentious as it is sterile. There just isn’t any more juice left in there, it starts to get ridiculous. The reason why it gets more difficult to distinguish one design from the other is that it has actually become mainstream, in its most inconsequential form.
I’m sure that, fifty years from now, everybody will look at these things in history books and laugh.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
just because you can…does not mean you should….
frankly I’m bored with all these frustrated sculptors.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Carlotta
my dear
…Italian geography!
Before to put a comment people should be aware what they say!!!
… Strongoli >Calabria (Crotone)
…Stromboli>Sicilia (Lipari).
by the way
Im glad that projects and infrastructures are quite slow to be build in Italy especially in the south!
I don’t think we deserve this bird _ _ i _!
WAKE UP!
April 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I love modern, post-modern, aggressive, progressive architecture, but it still has to play by the rules, otherwise any monkey could design a structure. Total disregard for the site is not architecture, no matter how convincing the architects comments/reasons might be…even if they spin it to sound like this wonderful sculpture actually fits in the landscape. This is a great peice of sculpture, but architecture is more than sculpture. I hope for the sake of the area this never gets built.