Acropolis Museum: A Part of the Landscape

This semester in Italy has been extremely helpful in developing a sense of site for me.  By that I mean that I have become much more site conscious through both projects that we have been working on and though the things I have studied both in this class and through filed studies.  The sites that we have been asked to address in Genoa have both been extremely difficult to address because of their historic significance, elevation changes, and community interaction.  This has caused me to have an eye for what we must do as architecture students to use the site to our advantage.  In Contemporary European Architecture, I have examined several examples of how to effectively address both nature and the site.  During my independent travel I had the chance to visit the Acropolis Museum in Athens which was a prime example of how to effectively address a historical site and even allow the historical site to play a huge part in the effectiveness of the finished building.

            The Acropolis Museum, designed by Bernard Tschumi, is placed on an archaeological site of ancient Greek ruins.  The amazing treatment of the site begins with the way that the buildings acts on the site.  The building is perched up on structural pillars and seems to float over the site.  This takes care of the problem of the building ruining any archaeological value of the site.  Next, Tschumi elected to use glass floors throughout the building in order to let the viewer to see the ruins below in their excavated state.  Not only does Tschumi carefully place his building on the site, but he also celebrates the site by making it visible through the floors.  Through my posts, I have been trying to find buildings that effectively and tastefully blend with their surroundings.  This one was one my favorites because I discovered it on my own while traveling and was able to tell through the studies that I had done that it was a building that successfully made use of the site in the design.  Through my studies of parasitic, natural and site sensitive architecture, I have found that this type of architecture is something that I am very interested in.  The interesting thing about architecture is that every site you will encounter is different.  Therefore it is important to know that you must observe the site very closely and make note of important site features that can be used to your advantage.  I hope that some of the lessons I have been learning will carry on in my architectural career as I continue to improve as a designer.              

            While blending the site successfully in the building, the building was also refreshingly simple in its design and very easy to walk through.  Upon walking into the building, you find very quickly which way you are being guided by the building.  The building gently guides you along a path all the way to the top of the building at which points it open up a beautiful view of the city of Athens from all sides.  Through my sketches I found that the building was not only simple but clear as to its intent for the visitors.  Also, as a design student I was able to appreciate the tectonic quality of the structure in this building.