The construction of the new Ethnographic Museum under the Liget Budapest Project has turned to the finish line, and the institution, housed in a world-class building, will open to the public in March 2022 in the area of 56-osok square, said László Baán, Ministerial Commissioner of the Liget Budapest Project.

He added that since the founding of the Ethnographic Museum in 1872, it has not had a museum building in place, and the collection has been housed in various locations that were originally used for other purposes. The collection is strongly connected to Városliget, as it was first presented to the general public in the Ethnographic Village of the Millennium Exhibition in 1896, and then housed in the Great Industrial Hall, also in Városliget.

"For the first time in its history, on the 150th anniversary of its founding, one of our most important national public collections will finally receive a building designed and built according to its own needs," László Baán emphasized.    

The pixel grid is also a technically important element of the facade, as it also provides shading of the building (Photo: Városliget Zrt.)

One of the most impressive elements of the building, the “glass curtain” covering the façade, is surrounded by a raster metal lattice mesh of almost half a million pixels based on ethnographic motifs selected from the museum's Hungarian and international collections. The pixels were inserted by a special robot into the laser-cut aluminum grids, of which more than 2,000 pieces are attached to the building. The small cubes were made up of 20 Hungarian and 20 international (including Venezuelan, Congolese, Cameroon, Mongolian, Chinese and Melanesian) contemporary reinterpretations of ethnographic motifs.

This special solution is not only aesthetically unique, but also technically important element of the facade, as it also provides shading of the building, contributing to energy-saving operation - we learned from the announcement of Városliget Zrt.

A total of 7,300 square meters of park space will be built on the roof of the building (Photo: Városliget Zrt.)

The works on the roof garden of the museum are also nearing completion, creating a green area of more than 7,000 square meters, richly planted with a variety of plant species. More than 3,000 cubic meters of topsoil enriched with special nutrients were spread on the hillsides of the building, planted with plants and trees. About 1,500 flowering and bulbous perennials were planted, 7 leafy shrubs, nearly 100 evergreens and almost 700 ornamental grasses. A total of 7,300 square feet of park space will be created on the roof arch of the building.

A total of 7,300 square meters of park space will be built on the roof of the building (Photo: Városliget Zrt.)

The works on the roof garden of the museum are also nearing completion, creating a green area of more than 7,000 square meters, richly planted with a variety of plant species. More than 3,000 cubic meters of topsoil enriched with special nutrients were spread on the hillsides of the building, planted with plants and trees. About 1,500 flowering and bulbous perennials were planted, 7 leafy shrubs, nearly 100 evergreens and almost 700 ornamental grasses. A total of 7,300 square feet of park space will be created on the roof arch of the building.

The small cubes consisted of 20 Hungarian and 20 international ethnographic motifs (Photo: Városliget Zrt.)

The commissioner recalled that the designers of the new home for the Ethnographic Museum had been selected through an inviting international design competition from an extremely strong field. The plans of Napur Architect, led by Marcel Ferencz, best met the expectations that the building should form a kind of gate at the end of the Városliget alley, as it was the historical “entrance” of it until the construction of Andrássy street, and fit into the park and institutional fabric of Városliget - said the ministerial commissioner.

 Next spring, the Ethnographic Museum awaits visitors with a spectacular temporary exhibition of the museum’s arrival on more than 1,000 square feet, titled “We’ve Arrived,” showcasing a selection of the collection’s most iconic objects. Even without a ticket, you will be able to visit the grandiose Ceramic Space with 3,500 works of art. In March, the most spectacular unit of the permanent exhibition will open, among other works of art, a 7-meter ZOOM square with a booth and the oldest Szekler gate, as well as a museum adventure space called Méta.

In the prestigious international real estate competition, the International Property Awards, in 2018, the Ethnographic Museum was chosen as the best public building in the world according to its plans, and at the same time it received the main award for Best Architecture.

Source: MTI, Városliget Zrt. Press release

Cover photo: The free-access roof garden of the museum, which will open in March 2022, will await the visitors of Városliget as a community space (Photo: Városliget Zrt.)