Mecanoo

New National Gallery-Ludwig Museum . Budapest

Mecanoo . + liget budapest

Competition proposal. Finalist.

At the present time, the park lacks a relevant destination point that captivates both a local and international audience. To do this, the relationship between architecture and landscape must be explored as well as the power that lies in respecting their reciprocal language. As with the belvederes and crystal palaces of the past, a contemporaneous architectural gesture must be similarly effective.
Set amidst the landscape of Varosliget Park, with its dappled walkways and processionals, is the New National Gallery and Ludwig Museum -the 21st century belvedere of City Park, Budapest. A graceful beacon, it neither challenges nor exists in abrupt contrast with project sites trees and expansive grounds, but instead becomes a backdrop feature of the landscape, harnessing the gravitas of this form so akin to high culture, intellectual discourse and articulated landscape experience.
The building is designed to facilitate an experience of the landscape. It is not a building that is visited once every few years, but one that is regularly used, forming an integral part of the cultural topography of Budapest.