The Museum Oberamteistrasse by Wulf Architekten in Reutlingen brings a contemporary timber structure into dialogue with one of the German city’s oldest streets. The museum project restores a sequence of medieval houses and completes the corner with a new volume that traces the footprint of the former Stone House.

The surrounding fabric dates to the 12th and 13th centuries, and the surviving basements and timber frames carry more than seven centuries of construction history. The rehabilitation treats these buildings as both exhibition spaces and primary artifacts. Walls and beams are expressed and are shrouded in a dramatic facade and rooftop of translucent glass shingles.

images © Brigida González

wulf architekten’s shimmering facade of glass shingles

On the corner plot where the Stone House once stood, the team at Wulf Architekten introduces the Museum Oberamteistrasse intervention to reestablish the street edge without imitating the historic fabric. The volume follows the scale and roof geometry of its neighbors, while its surface announces a glowing, contemporary intervention. Cast glass shingles, shaped like traditional beaver-tail tiles, form a continuous skin across roof and facade.

The glass cladding shifts in tone with the light. In overcast conditions the envelope appears pale and matte, while interior illumination reveals the geometry of the timber structure behind it. This layered effect gives the project a changing presence within the tight grain of Reutlingen’s old town.

the contemporary Museum Oberamteistrasse occupies a medieval street in Reutlingen

the exposed timber truss system

The structural design by Str-ucture centers on an exposed timber truss system that defines the Museum Oberamteistrasse’s interior volume. Large triangular frames span the height of the building, bracing the envelope and supporting adjacent historic walls. Their rhythm is legible from both inside and outside, where the grid reads faintly through the glass shingles.

Within, the timber structure forms a spatial framework that guides circulation. A broad stair rises alongside the trusses, offering views across excavated stone foundations below. The preserved basement walls of the former Stone House remain in situ, their rough masonry contrasting with the precise joinery of the new wooden members above.

Light filters through the glass tiles and washes the interior with a soft glow. The timber takes on a warm tone against the diffuse exterior brightness, and the triangular geometry casts a shifting pattern across floors and walls.

translucent cast glass shingles form a continuous roof and facade surface

restored houses from the 12th and 13th centuries are both exhibition space and artifact

preserved stone foundations remain visible beneath the new construction

the structural design by Str-ucture supports historic walls and frames circulation

cast glass shingles are shaped like traditional beaver-tail tiles

old and new construction techniques are presented as legible architectural layers

project info:

name: Museum Oberamteistrasse

architect: Wulf Architekten | @wulfarchitekten

location: Reutlingen, Germany

structure: Str-ucture | @str.ucture.gmbh

photography: © Brigida González | @brigidagonzalezwork

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Níall McLaughlin Architects wins the Malcolm Reading Consultants international competition to design the Museum of Jesus’ Baptism at Bethany, Jordan, a project set within a luminous desert landscape adjacent to the UNESCO-listed Baptism Site. Scheduled to open in 2030 to mark the bimillennial of Christ’s baptism, the museum is conceived as an east–west architectural journey. 

The winning proposal by the 2026 Royal Gold Medal for architecture winner was praised by the Foundation and Advisory Panel for ‘its flair for multi-layered and immersive storytelling that focuses on communicating baptism’s power to offer spiritual renewal and new life.’ The project answers the brief’s call for wonder and humility through a modest, earth-bound form that draws meaning from procession, material, and light.

‘The challenge of the design was to find a way to allow the architecture to mediate between a charged landscape and the sacred narratives that arose within it. It demanded a building that could work with allegory,’ share the architects. ‘At the same time, the project needed to use local labor, skills, and resources to achieve something with a sense of social responsibility and low carbon expenditure.’

all images by Níall McLaughlin Architects

building with allegory and landscape

Visitors descend from an arid wilderness garden into the earth, crossing a water-filled rift before re-emerging into light and a cultivated paradise garden. Architecture becomes a mediator, framing a passage from dryness to fertility, from enclosure to revelation.

The eastern entrance and western exit face one another across a public square, marked by a triangle and a circle. The London-based architects describe these as emphasizing a life in Christ as the Alpha and Omega. Between them, a stepped landscape rises onto the roof, imagined as an elevated archaeological terrain with mosaic floors set between low stone walls. From this accessible roofscape, visitors look out across the Jordan River valley and the pilgrimage route leading to the Baptism Site.

a project set within a luminous desert landscape adjacent to the UNESCO-listed Baptism Site

rammed earth and stone shape the structure

Internally, permanent allegorical elements are interwoven with flexible gallery spaces. Deep walls contain displays, circulation, and services, shaping thickened thresholds rather than neutral white rooms. The structure of the museum is grounded in rammed earth and stone sourced locally, intended to be built with regional labor and skills. Low carbon expenditure and social responsibility are embedded into the design logic, not appended as afterthoughts.

‘We congratulate Níall McLaughlin’s team on their proposal, which excels in telling the story of baptism – highlighting its power to offer spiritual renewal and new life,’ states Dr Tharwat Almasalha, Chair of the competition’s Advisory Panel and Chair of the Foundation’s Board. ‘We look forward to celebrating the bimillennial of Christ’s baptism in 2030 with the opening of the new museum, which promises to be an inspiration for Jordan, faith communities, and secular visitors worldwide.’

scheduled to open in 2030

the project answers the brief’s call for wonder and humility through a modest, earth-bound form

visitors look out across the Jordan River valley and the pilgrimage route leading to the Baptism Site

visitors descend from an arid wilderness garden into the earth

crossing a water-filled rift before re-emerging into light

architecture becomes a mediator

low carbon expenditure and social responsibility are embedded into the design logic

project info:

name: Museum of Jesus’ Baptism at Bethany

architects: Níall McLaughlin Architects | @niallmclaughlinarchitects

location: Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Jordan

competition organiser: Malcolm Reading Consultants

client / foundation: The Foundation for the Museum of Jesus’ Baptism

local consultant: Engicon

landscape architecture: Kim Wilkie Landscape

exhibition design & wayfinding: Nissen Richards Studio

lighting design: Studio ZNA

daylight & shadow studies: Arup

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Photographer Danica O. Kus documents the recently opened Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven district, now occupying a nine-story, early 20th-century coffee warehouse, originally built between 1901 and 1902 to store beans arriving from the Brazilian port city of Santos (find designboom’s previous coverage here). Her images dwell on the tension between weight and lightness, capturing thick masonry walls and ornamental facades counterbalanced by exhibition spaces. The robust structure of the former warehouse is not erased but reframed, allowing photography to unfold within a calm environment. Climate-regulated galleries, cold storage facilities, and newly visible conservation areas signal the technical upgrade of the building, yet Kus’ lens keeps attention on how visitors encounter the work.

all images by Danica O. Kus

from coffee storage to cultural infrastructure

Constructed by Rotterdam architects J.P. Stok Wzn and J.J. Kanters, the Santos warehouse stands as a rare, well-preserved example of early 20th-century port architecture in the Netherlands. Listed as a national monument since 2000, it now integrates contemporary interventions, including a new atrium and a perforated aluminum ‘crown’ that accommodates offices, a restaurant, and short-stay apartments. The transformation, led by Rotterdam-based WDJArchitecten in collaboration with Hamburg studio Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn, equips the listed monument with advanced conservation facilities while retaining its industrial gravitas.

Through architectural photographer Kus’ series, the renewed museum emerges less as a spectacle of renovation and more as an infrastructure for attention. The project aligns architectural preservation with archival responsibility, situating photography within a building once dedicated to global trade. In this shift, the Santos warehouse becomes a place housing more than 6.5 million photographic objects, where the material history of the city converges with the evolving language of photography.

the perforated aluminum ‘crown’ rises above the historic brick facade

contemporary rooftop extension contrasts with the early 20th-century masonry below

original brickwork and green shutters preserve the building’s warehouse identity

the former santos coffee warehouse in rotterdam, now home to the nederlands fotomuseum

exhibition graphics and large-format prints activate the robust steel framework

the central void connects multiple levels

cascading staircases and steel walkways reveal the building’s layered interior

layered staircases and walkways reveal the museum’s open, multi-level interior

thematic displays introduce archival material alongside contemporary presentation tools

large-scale photographic works unfold against the preserved industrial structure of the warehouse

gallery spaces balance dark-toned exhibition walls with exposed timber beams and steel columns

dark exhibition walls frame large-scale portraits against exposed steel columns

new interventions, including perforated metal volumes, sit within the historic shell

a skylit atrium brings daylight deep into the nine-storey structure

the rooftop ‘crown’ offers panoramic views over rotterdam’s rijnhaven district

project info:

name: The National Museum of Photography (Nederlands Fotomuseum) | @nlfotomuseum

architect: Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten | @rhwz.architekten, WDJArchitecten

location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

photographer: Danica O. Kus | @danica_o_kus_photography

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The Hangzhou Empathy Museum by TAOA Studio stands along a riverfront corridor in Hangzhou, where a former construction site has been reworked into a compact community arts institution. The project begins with an unfinished condition, an underground parking garage already complete and a planned structure above, and turns that fragment into a civic space with a distinct architectural presence.

TAOA approaches the museum from the inside outward, with its original massing described as a cube truncated by a cylinder. Exhibition halls carved from the basement drive the organization of the floors above, and each program presses outward to adjust the structure and facade. 

images © TAOA Studio

a facade as a ‘peeled shell’

Facing a river on one side and a major road on the other, the envelope of TAOA’s Hangzhou Empathy Museum reads as a peeled shell. The city-facing elevation opens and curves away, creating a surface that stands slightly apart from the inner volume while allowing air and light to pass between. The building gains depth through this layered construction, with exterior skin and interior rooms held in measured tension.

The architects wrap the entire exterior in a facade of curved stainless steel panels. Their inherent stiffness allows wide spans without secondary purlins, giving the surface a continuous rhythm. Under changing daylight the metal carries a soft sheen. Reflections shift with passing clouds and traffic, lending the volume a sculptural tenderness that tempers its compact form.

TAOA transforms an unfinished parking structure into the Hangzhou Empathy Museum

the perforated skin blurs views and diffuses light

Along the Hangzhou Empathy Museum’s north facade, TAOA employs perforations to temper the brightness of the sky. From inside, the city appears as a blurred field of movement and color, similar to an abstract drawing. The effect supports the galleries, where artworks receive steady, diffuse illumination and outside distractions recede into a gentle background presence.

The second floor lifts at a calculated angle to brace the canopy below. This move introduces a profile that recalls the protective depth of traditional eaves. The overhang creates shade at the ground plane and establishes a sheltered zone where visitors gather before entering, a subtle gesture that strengthens the building’s relationship with the street.

a peeled facade forms a layered shell between the museum and the city

The entrance sits within a semi circular concavity that draws visitors inward. The geometry suggests a pull toward the doorway, easing the transition from sidewalk to interior. Above, a narrow crevice admits daylight, which falls through a three story void. This tall space, described by the architects as a spatial canyon, sets the scale for the visit and frames the first encounter with the museum.

At ground level, the plan opens toward the north and extends into a cantilevered platform. The edge between interior and exterior softens as paving and floor align. At one corner, a vertical void links all floors, transforming an awkward angle from the earlier structure into a luminous core. Light drops from above and washes the walls, giving the junction a quiet, contemplative character.

curved stainless steel panels create a continuous skin with subtle reflections

A staircase runs along the sidewall and becomes visible in fragments through the perforated metal. From the street, silhouettes of movement animate the facade, offering glimpses of activity within. The path upward feels direct and legible, and encourages visitors to easily move between levels.

Connections to the underground galleries are designed with the same level of care. Portions of the structural slabs were removed to draw daylight and planted views down into the basement. Exhibition rooms below ground gain a surprising sense of openness, and the sequence between above and below reads as one continuous environment.

perforated metal filters daylight and softens views toward the surrounding streets

a recessed entrance draws visitors into a three story canyon filled with light

vertical voids and a side stair reveal movement and connect all levels

exhibition spaces carved from the basement shape the building from the inside outward

project info:

name: Hangzhou Empathy Museum

architect: TAOA Studio | @taoarchitecture

location: Hangzhou, China

completion: 2025 

photography: © TAOA Studio

design team: Tao Lei, Chen Zhen, Cui Xiang, Tao Ye, Meng Xiangrui, Wang Shuchen, He Xiaotian
lead architect: Tao Lei
construction: Hangzhou Jingyi Decoration Engineering Co., Ltd.
lighting consultant: TS Lighting
landscape design: Hangzhou Musan Landscape Design
structure design: Zhejiang Institute of Architectural Design and Research

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The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is set to open the David Geffen Galleries on April 19th, 2026, marking the completion of a two-decade transformation of its campus. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the new building becomes LACMA’s primary home for its permanent collection, introducing 10,220 square meters of exhibition space within a 274-meter-long structure that spans Wilshire Boulevard.

Set on elevated piers, the fluid concrete form of the David Geffen Galleries redefines the presence of the museum in Los Angeles. A network of floating staircases and elevators provides access to the building from both the north and south sides of Wilshire Boulevard. The north wing of the structure, named the Elaine Wynn Wing in recognition of a $50 million donation, anchors the project, while the south wing remains open for future naming.

Rather than organizing works by medium or chronology, the inaugural installation uses the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, along with the Mediterranean Sea, as its framework. The approach foregrounds exchange, migration, and commerce across centuries, allowing works from different cultures and eras to coexist without prescribed hierarchies or routes. Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 objects from LACMA’s collection will be on view at any one time.

David Geffen Galleries at LACMA; exterior view from East West Bank Commons southeast toward Wilshire Boulevard with Tony Smith’s Smoke (1967) in foreground, © Tony Smith Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York | image by Iwan Baan

an oceanic framework for the inaugural installation

Forty-five curators have collaborated on the opening installation of the LA-based museum, bringing together works that span 6,000 years of art history. Among the highlights are Georges de La Tour’s The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (1640), Henri Matisse’s La Gerbe (1953), Antonio de Arellano and Manuel de Arellano’s Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe) (1691), Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), and Vincent van Gogh’s Tarascon Stagecoach (1888).

The presentation is further expanded through new commissions by Todd Gray, Lauren Halsey, Sarah Rosalena, Do Ho Suh, and Diana Thater, among others. On April 22nd, 2026, Peter Zumthor will join LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan in conversation on the East West Bank Commons as part of The Genesis Talks. ‘We are excited to be so close to completing the upgrade of the museum campus to increase gallery space and enhance the visitor experience. None of this would have been possible without the generosity and commitment of the County of Los Angeles, our board of trustees, donors, members, neighbors, and artists. We look forward to sharing this reimagined museum experience both with Angelenos and visitors from around the world,’ states Michael Govan, CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Visitors in the David Geffen Galleries with Todd Gray’s Octavia’s Gaze, 2025, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the 2024 Collectors Committee, © Todd Gray | image © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Jonathan Urban

reconnecting with hancock park

Beyond the galleries, the project extends into 14,164 square meters of newly accessible outdoor space integrated with Hancock Park. The plaza level will host public art installations and educational programming, with works by Mariana Castillo Deball, Pedro Reyes, Sarah Rosalena, Diana Thater, and Shio Kusaka unfolding across spring and summer. Jeff Koons’s Split-Rocker (2000), composed of living plants and flowers, will be installed in the spring.

The reopening also brings back works closely associated with LACMA’s identity, including Tony Smith’s Smoke (1967) and Alexander Calder’s Three Quintains (Hello Girls) (1964), originally commissioned for the Wilshire Boulevard site museum. A 743-square-meter garden along the north side of Wilshire Boulevard will feature Auguste Rodin’s sculptures alongside works by Los Angeles-based artist Liz Glynn.

Amenities on the plaza level will open in phases, with the LACMA Store and LACMA Café debuting in April and the W.M. Keck Education Center launching on May 3rd, 2026, during the NexGenLA celebration.

visitors in the David Geffen Galleries, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

concluding a twenty-year campus transformation

The April 2026 opening completes a long-term expansion strategy aimed at increasing gallery space while maintaining public access throughout construction. Earlier phases included the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in 2008 and the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion in 2010, together adding approximately 9,290 square meters of space. With the David Geffen Galleries, LACMA’s total exhibition area reaches approximately 20,440 square meters, up from about 12,080 square meters in 2007.

Located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, LACMA holds more than 150,000 objects and remains the largest art museum in the western United States. The David Geffen Galleries reposition the institution physically and conceptually, framing Los Angeles not only as a site of display but as a lens through which global art histories intersect.

set on elevated piers | image by Iwan Baan

Zumthor’s building replaces four aging museum structures with a single, unified gallery space | image by Iwan Baan

the David Geffen Galleries reposition the institution physically and conceptually | image by Iwan Baan

the fluid concrete form of the David Geffen Galleries redefines the presence of the museum | image by Iwan Baan

project info:

name: LACMA | @lacma

architect: Peter Zumthor

location: Los Angeles, California, US

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The Nederlands Fotomuseum has officially opened its new home in Rotterdam, settling into the restored Santos warehouse along the Rijnhaven harbor.

The heavy brick mass of the early twentieth century warehouse stands steady at the corner, its facades still marked by decorative lintels and deep-set openings. Above, two added floors sit within a perforated aluminum veil that glows softly at dusk. The metal skin reads as a light canopy hovering over the old masonry, a precise intervention that contrasts the museum‘s new public life with its working past. See designboom’s previous coverage here.

image © Iwan Baan

adaptive reuse for an historic warehouse

The museum occupies one of the best preserved warehouses in the Netherlands, built between 1901 and 1902 for coffee shipped from Brazil. Architects Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten in Hamburg worked with Rotterdam-based firm WDJArchitecten to restore the six historic stories and insert new levels at the top, bringing the total height to just under 35 metres. The upper addition, wrapped in a semi transparent ‘crown,’ holds offices and a restaurant while maintaining solar protection through its perforated surface .

At ground level, the shutters that once sealed the facade have been opened permanently and replaced with glazing. The change draws the city inward. Passing traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians read the interior at a glance. The museum presents itself as part of the street, which suits a harbor district undergoing steady regeneration.

Rotterdam’s historic Santos warehouse now houses the Nederlands Fotomuseum | image © Iwan Baan

collections backdropped by lofty, industrial interiors

Entering Rotterdam’s new Nederlands Fotomuseum, visitors are welcomed by a tall atrium has been cut through the center, with a stair rising from the basement to the top floors. Daylight filters down from above, touching the cast iron columns and the timber beams that span each level. The original structure remains exposed. Services have been threaded between the joists, keeping the ceilings quiet.

Circulation feels direct. The stair carries visitors past galleries, open depots, and ateliers where conservation work takes place behind glass. From the landings, one can watch specialists handling negatives and prints. The proximity between display and care makes the museum’s mandate tangible. Photography appears as both image and object.

a perforated aluminum crown adds two new stories above the preserved brick structure | image © Iwan Baan

a national collection on display

The program spreads across roughly 9,000 square meters, with more than 5,000 dedicated to public space and nearly 3,400 to exhibitions . The first floor hosts the Gallery of Honour of Dutch Photography, a permanent presentation tracing the medium from the nineteenth century to the present. Upper floors hold temporary shows, while the second and third levels contain climate controlled storage and conservation facilities.

On the ground floor, a café, library, and bookshop create a slow threshold between city and museum. In the basement, a darkroom and education areas support workshops. Toward the top, a restaurant opens onto views of the skyline and the Maas. Each function occupies the warehouse’s repetitive grid, so the space maintains a consistent rhythm even as uses shift.

a central atrium brings daylight deep into the former industrial floors | image © Iwan Baan

spaces for display and preservation

The move brings the institution’s collection of over 6.5 million objects into purpose-built conditions. The scale becomes easier to grasp when walking past the open depots. Rows of cabinets and boxes stretch deep into the floor plate, their order contrasting with the rough brick and patched concrete. Light levels stay controlled, the atmosphere cool. The building’s closed facades and limited daylight suit the needs of light sensitive material.

The Nederlands Fotomuseum has long focused on preservation alongside exhibition, and the new setting reinforces that dual role. The architecture supports both tasks with straightforward means: durable surfaces, generous spans, and a plan that keeps movement efficient. Visitors experience the archive as an active workplace rather than a back room.

original cast iron columns and timber beams frame the museum interior | image © Iwan Baan

visitors move through open depots where conservation work remains visible | image © Iwan Baan

flexible galleries support both permanent displays and temporary exhibitions | image © Iwan Baan

climate-controlled storage protects millions of photographs and negatives | image © Iwan Baan

project info:

name: The National Museum of Photography (Nederlands Fotomuseum) | @nlfotomuseum

architect: Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten | @rhwz.architekten, WDJArchitecten

location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

completion: 2026

previous coverage: November 2024

photography: © Iwan Baan | @iwanbaan

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Peter Pichler Architecture has proposed a Museum Depot in Bolzano, Italy, a complex designed to house, conserve, and share South Tyrol’s cultural collections within a single, carefully planned campus.

Set against the vineyards and steep slopes that ring the valley, the museum building is shaped by a broad, low silhouette that sits close to the terrain, with a raised grassy rooftop and generous glazing that present a calm civic face to the street. From a distance, the structure reads as an agricultural form translated into public architecture, its geometry familiar within the alpine landscape while clearly contemporary in its execution.

visualizations © Peter Pichler Architecture

a museum depot for diverse artworks and artifacts

The new museum depot by Peter Pichler Architecture brings together functions that had been dispersed across the region into one space. Archaeological finds, artworks from provincial museums, photographic and film archives, along with pieces from the Unterberger and Eccel Kreuzer collections and Museion, are gathered under one roof, allowing over one million objects to be conserved with consistent standards and easier public access.

The team led by Peter Pichler organizes the program around relationships between people and collections rather than treating storage as a series of isolated rooms. Offices, laboratories, workshops, storage areas, and galleries connect through direct routes that support daily research and handling. Circulation paths intersect in shared spaces, encouraging exchange between curators, conservators, and visitors.

Peter Pichler Architecture proposes a new museum depot to centralize South Tyrol’s cultural collections

sunlit workspaces above subterranean exhibition zones 

Above grade, workspaces cluster around a central courtyard that draws daylight deep into Peter Pichler’s Museum Depot. The courtyard offers a patch of green at the center of the building, giving staff a place to step outside between tasks while maintaining a visual connection with the interior. Sunlight filters through timber soffits and glazed walls, producing a steady, even illumination across desks and benches.

Collection storage and exhibition zones sit below ground, where the earth provides thermal stability. This placement supports steady temperature and humidity levels that are essential for long term preservation. The decision also reduces the apparent scale of the complex when viewed from the surrounding fields, and allows the building to humbly settle into the site.

a transparent foyer welcomes visitors with generous glazing and views toward the mountains

the green roofscape

The roof forms a continuous green surface that extends the landscape across the top of the building. Planted areas soften the outline and manage rainwater while improving insulation. From nearby paths and upper streets, the depot appears as a cultivated ground plane that gently lifts to shelter the spaces beneath.

Access occurs from the plaza and street through a transparent foyer. Glass panels rise to the underside of the pitched roof, framing views of the mountains beyond and bringing daylight into the heart of the museum. Visitors and staff also enter through underground parking, connecting directly to the lower levels without interrupting the public forecourt.

a central courtyard illuminates workspaces and offers staff direct access to green outdoor space

luminous interiors frame views across bolzano

Inside the main hall, a sculptural spiral stair links the underground exhibition rooms with the ground and first floors. Its curved form guides movement in a slow, continuous motion, offering glimpses of storage and display areas along the way. The stair becomes a reference point that helps visitors orient themselves within the layered section of the building.

Material choices lean toward timber, glass, and mineral finishes that age with use. The palette supports a working atmosphere suited to conservation while maintaining the openness needed for a public institution project. 

a sculptural spiral stair connects the exhibition levels

exhibition areas are placed underground where stable temperatures protect sensitive artifacts

project info:

name: Museum Depot

architect: Peter Pichler Architecture | @peterpichler_architecture

location: Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy

design team: Peter Pichler, Daniele Colombati, Niklas Knap, Simona Alù, Cem Ozbasaran, Filippo Ogliani, Nathalia Rotelli, Rama Masri, Maria Pacchi, Alexander Kellner, Aidin Shamsalghoraei

status: in progress

visualizations: © Peter Pichler Architecture

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Together with Frade Arquitectos, Luca Poian Forms envisions this EMT Museum as a landmark building dedicated to the transit history of Madrid. Conceived as a large civic presence on the site of the former Vicente Calderón Stadium, the project approaches its setting with measured geometry and a lightweight facade. Its scale reads as infrastructural, yet its profile and materiality remain soft.

The exterior is wrapped in a translucent ETFE skin that tempers the building’s physical weight. Daylight filters through the envelope, softening edges and producing shifting interior atmospheres across the day. From the river path, the museum appears permeable and luminous, its surface responding to changing weather and light rather than asserting a fixed image.

visualizations © Filippo Bolognese Images

a home for Madrid’s public transport history

The EMT Museum is planned by Luca Poian Forms and Frade Arquitectos as an institutional home for Madrid’s public transport history. It has been designed as part of an international competition, with a program to focus on movement, logistics, and collective memory. Industrial references drawn from depots and hangars inform the spatial organization, translated into a contemporary architectural language centered on efficiency and long-term adaptability. The building supports public exhibition areas alongside operational zones, arranged through clear circulation routes that support smooth daily use.

Visitors enter at ground level onto an open, flexible floor that can accommodate exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and civic gatherings. Circulation paths remain legible and generous, encouraging slow movement through the galleries while maintaining operational efficiency behind the scenes. The museum functions as an active public interior, capable of shifting with changing curatorial needs and public programming.

this EMT Museum is proposed for the site of a former stadium in Madrid

industrial durability balanced by visual lightness

At the heart of the EMT Museum, Luca Poian and Frade Arquitectos plan column-free exhibition halls to house historic buses at full scale. A reinforced concrete bridge system spans these spaces, supporting the loads required for both display and movement while maintaining spatial continuity. Above and around this structure, a lightweight metal framework supports the ETFE envelope to lend a contrast between industrial durability and visual lightness.

Material choices emphasize durability and performance. Concrete surfaces provide thermal mass and a tactile sense of permanence, while the ETFE facade introduces softness and translucency. The interplay between these systems produces interiors that feel expansive and calm, shaped by diffuse light and long sightlines across the exhibition floor.

a lightweight ETFE facade softens the industrial urban fabric

environmental approach and future use

Environmental performance is integrated directly into the building’s systems. The ETFE air-cushion facade functions as a passive climatic layer, regulating light and heat while reducing energy demand. Its lightweight and recyclable nature supports long-term sustainability goals without compromising spatial quality or durability.

Digital tools form a parallel layer within the physical architecture. Augmented reality and interactive media are embedded throughout the museum to support interpretation and engagement, and are integrated to extend the visitor experience beyond static displays. 

the ground level opens onto a flexible space for exhibitions and conferences

column-free exhibition halls will house historic buses at full scale

the ETFE air-cushion facade regulates light and heat while reducing energy demand

project info:

name: EMT Museum

architecture: Luca Poian Forms | @lucapoianforms, Frade Arquitectos | @fradearquitectos

location: Madrid, Spain

engineer: PROINTEC

area: 10,620 square meters

visualizations: © Filippo Bolognese Images | @filippobolognese.images

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Brussels is set to open a new chapter in its cultural history with the relaunch of Kanal-Centre Pompidou, a museum and cultural complex inside a former Citroën factory. To open again on November 28th, 2026, the project is being described as Europe’s largest new museum development and marks the city’s first institution that’s fully dedicated to modern and contemporary art and architecture. The opening exhibitions are co-created with Paris’ Centre Pompidou, bringing together more than 350 artworks drawn mainly from the Pompidou’s collection, alongside works from Kanal and other Belgian and international collections.

The transformed industrial building is located along the Brussels canal, spanning 40,000 square meters. Under one expansive roof, the museum and public cultural space is expected to house five floors of exhibition galleries, performance and film spaces, workshops, community areas, cafes, shops, and a rooftop restaurant and bar overlooking the city. The plans also include an in-house bakery and large circulation areas open to visitors even without a museum ticket. The redesign of the former factory is being led by Atelier Kanal, a team formed by Swiss architects EM2N, Brussels-based noAarchitecten, and London’s Sergison Bates architects.

all images courtesy of Atelier Kanal © Secchi Smith, unless stated otherwise

long-term collaboration between two institutions

The exhibition at the reopening of the Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex in Brussels will include works by major 20th-century artists such as Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Alberto Giacometti, and Wifredo Lam, as well as contemporary artists connected to Brussels and the international art scene.  Aside from the re-opening, the relaunch doubles as a long-term collaboration between the two institutions, as they aim to often bring international art to Brussels. The Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex in Brussels is also set to be the new home for the CIVA collection, Brussels’ archive of architecture, landscape design, and urban planning. 

Several exhibitions are set to open at once during the re-opening on November 28th, 2026. The highlights include An infinite woman, examining colonial imagery and its reclamation, alongside solo and commissioned works by Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Manon de Boer (with Latifa Laâbissi and Laszlo Umbreit), Joshua Serafin, Banu Cennetoğlu, and Otobong Nkanga. Group projects involve Département des Pièges curated by Clémentine Deliss, NO SHOW by Deborah Bowmann and Maoupa Mazzocchè, and contributions from Guillaume Bijl, Kasper Bosmans, Laurent Dupont, Aline Bouvy, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Valérie Mannaerts, Miao Miao, and others.

rendering of the interior street in Kanal

indoor playground created by British collective Assemble

The program also features ‘A truly immense journey’ with artists including Lygia Clark, Sonia Delaunay, Natalia Goncharova, Henri Matisse, Wifredo Lam, Katarzyna Kobro, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Sammy Baloji, Edith Dekyndt, Aglaia Konrad, and Hana Miletić, and a community print room by WERKER Collective. Inside the renovated architecture lies an indoor playground created by British collective Assemble, winners of the Turner Prize. Covering 700 square meters is an installation filled with hills, volcanoes, and distant planets. So far, the official date for the reopening of the Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex in Brussels is in November 2026.

view of the Reading Room inside the complex

view of the nave

the showroom inside the cultral complex

the Koekelberg viaduct near Sainctelettesquare, around 1958. Postcard by Colorprint, Brussels © CIVA Collections, Brussels

Garage Citroën. Negatives. © CIVA Collections, Brussels

The workshops of the Citroën garage, Paul Smith. © CIVA Collections, Brussels

project info:

museums: Kanal, Centre Pompidou | @kanal.centrepompidou, @centrepompidou

location: Sainctelehesquare 11-12, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

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The Memphis Art Museum shares updated renderings, construction images, and the first details of its curatorial approach for its new downtown cultural campus, scheduled to open in December 2026. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with architect of record archimania and landscape studio OLIN, the 11,475-square-meter building repositions the institution along the Mississippi River, expanding its gallery footprint and its role as a civic space. The museum frames the new building as an active participant in the way that art, history, and community are experienced.

The glass facade of the building and street-level galleries allow passersby to see inside, while a public plaza shared with the historic Cossitt Library forms a new cultural commons along the bluff. At the center, a shaded courtyard operates as a social hinge, surrounded by a continuous, single-story loop of flexible gallery spaces. Five galleries feature large windows overlooking either the Mississippi River or the courtyard, while light-filled classrooms with northern exposure link viewing art to making it. Atop the building, a 4,645-square-meter rooftop sculpture garden, described as an ‘art park in the sky’, extends the footprint of the museum into the skyline. Sculptures, native plants, an event pavilion, and panoramic views of downtown Memphis and the Mississippi floodplain transform the roof into a public destination. 

The building is among the first major US museums to be constructed using laminated timber, with wood forming a defining architectural element throughout the campus. Timber beams, warm-toned surfaces, and material references to the clay banks of the Mississippi embed the building in its regional landscape. ‘Already, the civic nature of the building is tangible, and one can sense the positive impact it will have on Memphis,’ notes Ascan Mergenthaler, Senior Partner at Herzog & de Meuron.

all Memphis Art Museum construction images by Houston Cofield

a curatorial shift grounded in lived experience

Founded in 1916, the Memphis Art Museum is the largest and oldest world art museum in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas, holding nearly 10,000 works that span 5,000 years of global history. Its collection includes Old Master paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, American art from the late 19th and 20th centuries, and significant holdings in photography. The move downtown allows the institution to reorganize its narratives around lived experience rather than conventional art historical chronologies.

That shift is most visible in the new curatorial framework. When the museum opens, its galleries will be organized into 18 distinct exhibitions that foreground connections across time, geography, and medium. The new layout creates visual and conceptual dialogue between spaces. ‘The construction of a new museum has given us a rare opportunity to not simply display more art, but to reimagine how we think about history, power, creativity and connection,’ says Chief Curator Dr. Patricia Lee Daigle. ‘We’re able to present the collection in ways that reflect the lived realities of the city that we serve.’

One thematic throughline across the campus is liberation. An exhibition anchored by Henry Sharp Studio’s Warren Black Gospel Window, on view for the first time, presents an early depiction of Christ and three biblical women as Black. This gallery will be in conversation with another space across the courtyard that explores jazz as a liberatory force for Black American abstract artists, including Sam Gilliam’s Azure (1977), a work long associated with the museum. These cross-courtyard sightlines are not incidental; the building’s spatial organization actively supports curatorial storytelling.

scheduled to open in December 2026

archives, artists, and the making of collective memory

Through the Blackmon Perry Initiative, the institution has acquired 80 works by contemporary Black artists, including Sanford Biggers, Brittney Boyd Bullock, Jordan Casteel, Torkwase Dyson, Alteronce Gumby, Hew Locke, and Ebony Patterson, an initiative supported by the Blackmon Perry Endowment, which funds a Curator of African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora, along with exhibitions, catalogues, and acquisitions. Another major addition is the Hooks Brothers Studio archive, which includes more than 75,000 photographs documenting Black life in the American South between 1900 and 1984, promised as a gift from Andrea Herenton and board trustee Rodney Herenton.

Opening during a year of major cultural expansions across the city, including projects at the National Civil Rights Museum and the National Ornamental Metal Museum, the new Memphis Art Museum positions itself as part of a broader cultural ecosystem rather than a standalone icon. As Executive Director Zoe Kahr puts it, ‘The depth of a community’s belief in the arts is reflected in its willingness to invest boldly in spaces that invite imagination, dialogue, and connection.’

the 11,475-square-meter building repositions the institution along the Mississippi River

expanding its gallery footprint and its role as a civic space

an active participant in the way that art, history, and community are experienced

the glass facade of the building and street-level galleries allow passersby to see inside

light-filled classrooms with northern exposure link viewing art to making it

a 4,645-square-meter rooftop sculpture garden extends the footprint of the museum

front street | all renderings courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron

front street sidewalk

Monroe Plaza

courtyard entry

roof garden

gallery north

gallery west

gallery north

front street sidewalk, evening

riverside evening

project info:

name: Memphis Art Museum | @brooksmuseum

architect: Herzog & de Meuron | @herzogdemeuron

location: Memphis, Tennessee, USA

total area: 11,475 square meter (123,500 square feet)

architect of record: archimania | @archimania

landscape design: OLIN | @olininsta
opening: December 2026

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