OVERVIEW

In collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects (Zetta Kotsioni & Dimitris Kolonis), A&M submitted a design proposal for the competition of the new Archaeological Museum of Sparta. The design and morphology of the New Archaeological Museum of Sparta aims to create a Landmark that will instigate the revitalization of cultural life and the economic growth of Sparta, Peloponnese and Greece as a whole and will make modern Sparta a cultural reference point. The building shell, the exhibits and the museological proposal determined how the cyclical and chronological tour of the visitors was planned spatially.

The design concept for the New Archaeological Museum of Sparta is the creation of a compact volume, robust and geometrically clean, in which penetrate dynamically external elements, creating voids and recesses, passages, courtyards – spaces of interaction.

The view of the Acropolis, the ancient findings of the plot, the surrounding area and the microclimate of Evrotas with the water element, the new city, invade the Museum. The exhibition, in turn, diffuses on the outside of the building and interacts with them. The building volume becomes a magnet which gathers the neighboring elements, brings them into dialogue and offers them to the visitors.

The emblematic view on the north side stands strongly behind the river Evrotas. The building appears solid on its eastern side, gradually revealing stunning images, with glass surfaces and skylights inside it. The solid facade consists of perforated panels, providing controlled lighting to the exhibits. The western facade, however, includes large glass surfaces and opens to the ancient ruins and the mosaics placed in the landscape, blurring the boundaries of interior and exterior sapce. Multiple paths on the landscape link the Museum to the surrounding area. The New Museum incorporates both regarding volume and function the existing building, which is the connecting element with the modern city of Sparta.