Comments on: New Acropolis Museum by Bernard Tschumi Architects

By: Jiří Thiemel

Jiří Thiemel — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:27:26 +0000

This building is example of how not to build museums… One visit of it will influence you more than whole semester of exhibition lectures. The building itself is monument which Tschumi has built to himself. Whole one floor is dedicated to restaurant and souvenir shop – it’s pure commerce. I even expected to find board offering meals in front of the entrance (happily there was none).

Proportions of the building are definitely not ancient Greek ones. The massive columns are of Egyptian proportions to the building. The construction principles don’t respect ancient Greek tradition at all. Boutique-like plasterboard ceiling with boutique-like lightning in building that tries to look monumentally? But only tries, because it’s broken into pieces by terrible details.

Each and every one exhibit is presented completely wrong. The enormous walls of stainless steel with quite good natural lightning should be background to the white statues. Instead of it there are small niches with the smallest exhibits in the walls. The statues are presented in “gallery” where all the attention is paid to enormous columns. The statues are situated higgledy-piggledy around them. And what’s more, the “gallery” is completely overlighted up by the sun through white glass wall. In such conditions, the statues suffers – no one can enjoy them, they are situated so wrong, that everybody rushes into them and there are no barriers, so everyone can touch them when the guardians cannot see him.

And where is the Parthenon? They claim that the museum is modern reconstruction of the Parthenon. Yes I know, they mean the core of the building. But the proportions of it, and it’s different on every floor. The top of the building, the most important part of it, is also the most terrible part of it. The tympanum on the floor instead of on the top and the acroteria mediana in the corner of the room… They have money to squander at the columns and the glass floor and stainless steel, but not enough of money to make the building little higher for the tympanum and the acroteria.
PS: The only exhibit which is presented correctly and perfectly is none of the ancient exhibits, it’s wash-basin in the toilets. White wash-basin, black background and perfect lightning…

By: F.G.I.

F.G.I. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:47:17 +0000

Scale, scale, scale! – Bigness cannot be rendered inconspicuous simply by means of bareness. Big CAN be beautifully subtle (Ashplund, Saarinen, Pleznic, Aalto, Van der Rohe, et al.) but this requires a level of craft and inspiration unfortunately not displayed here…

By: John

John — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:38:43 +0000

Tschumi has never made a good building.

By: rene ghelman

rene ghelman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:41:17 +0000

1. Looking at those (few) immages, I dare exepress my modest opinion that I’d appreciate Tschumi’s “intention” for not to compete with the ancient monument of Acropolis. Did he managed it ? I’m in doubt.
2. However I feel there is a discordance between the ( I think) small space of the “object” (the antique remains) , and the new architectural surrounding.
3. I totally agree with the idea that all pieces wich were taken in the past(doesn’t matter the way) from the Acropolis, should be returned at the original place.
In the same idea, I mention some other ancient art products wich are not there where they should be: Nefertiti (in Berlin museum); Tutankamon mask (in Cairo museum and not at the pharaoh’s tomb); Mona Lisa (at Le Louvre); the statue od

By: Jessica Price

Jessica Price — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:41:31 +0000

So sad Tschumi’s case. He became so old, never reinvented himself as his fellows like Koolhaas and Zaha did. it seems that after he stepped down as a dean from Columbia, he just lost it.
The blue tower at LES in NY is an example of how boring his designs can be. He used to be a great thinker. Not anymore; he seems lost and tired… could not ride the wave as Rem, Zaha H & de M, Jean Nouvel have been doing for the last years.

so long farewell…

By: Michael Finlan

Michael Finlan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:22:08 +0000

They forgot toilets.

By: Tp

Tp — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:35:49 +0000

What a respect to the past…

Bravo.

By: Pranav

Pranav — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:03:05 +0000

Brillant design….look at it, the built form is morphing with the surrounding

By: N

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:38:54 +0000

I have not seen the interiors which are rumoured to be exquisite. However, the building’s exterior is IMHO too aggressive and dominating. The scale is all wrong as is the location of the site, although through no fault of Tschumi’s. I expected something more contextual, somehow echoing the Acropolis without in any way copying it, evoking a sense of lightness and interacting with the brilliant light of Athens while at the same time employing a novel vocabulary. I did not anticipate a Guggenheim effect of any kind but I do think that the Acropolis Museum is a lost opportunity for a city badly lacking in good contemporary architecture.

By: Erik

Erik — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:34:17 +0000

Completely horrific. A spaceship among its context. A tin box among daimonds.