Passage III

The New Acropolis Museum

After thirty years of being planned, designed, and built, the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, opened in June 2009. It provides more than 150,000 square feet of exhibition space, the museum replaces a smaller one built in 1874. The modern glass, marble, stainless steel, and concrete structure stands in striking contrast to the ancient monuments, such as the Parthenon, on the nearby Hill of the Acropolis. (32)

In collaboration with Athenian architect, Michael Photiadis, Swiss-born architect, Bernard Tschumi designed a bright and airy, three-tiered space to display more than 4,000 treasured artifacts from ancient Greece. Construction of the new museum had barely begun, however, when the architects encountered an unusual problem. While digging the foundation, builders’ discovered the remains of an ancient Athenian neighborhood in the fourth century BC. Construction was halted so that the architects, engineers, and archaeologists could move on. Many archaeological digs run into unusual circumstances. (38)

The result was an altered plan that incorporates the ongoing excavation into the building. To preserve the 43,000-square-foot site, the architects designed concrete pillars that suspend the museum over the archaeological dig. When visitors enter the museum, they look down through a glass floor to see the ancient streets and homes below and then climb a glass ramp lined with artifacts found during the excavation.

The second level of the museum is a gallery, filled with natural light, for displaying ancient art. The interior design is intentionally spare; Tschumi has decided to display the art this way. The third level is a huge glass-walled box that, set at, an angle holds treasures from the site of the Parthenon. Then, visitors can enjoy panoramic views of Athens, including the Acropolis. The Acropolis Museum, that is, is a structure worthy of housing the greatest art of ancient Greece. And by comparison to that art, the museum will always remain “new.”