New design accepted by Greek government

The results of the second competition to design the New Acropolis Museum have been announced by the Greek government. The competition was won by Bernard Tschumi, a Swiss-born architect now based in New York. His design includes a glass structure which will one day house the Parthenon Marbles when the British government is finally persuaded to return those in its possession to Greece.

The Greek Embassy in London said: "With this project, which does cost a lot of money, we're simply manifesting in a practical way our commitment to completing this project in the expectation that the Parthenon sculptures will grace the new rooms of the museum in Athens. This shows our determination to forge ahead."

The winning design was chosen from a shortlist of 12. Construction will begin next spring, and the architect says that he is confident of completing the museum in time for the 2004 Olympic Games which will be held in Athens.

The winning design for the museum, which will be located 300 yards from the Parthenon, includes a rectangular glass gallery
that will display the Parthenon Marbles with exactly the same dimensions they once occupied on the Parthenon.

Visitors to the museum will be able to see the Parthenon from the glass gallery. Moreover, the new design allows exhibits to be
seen in natural light and incorporates a number of on-site excavations, including a large urban settlement dating from Archaic
to Early Christian Athens, which forced the abandonment of the winning design of the original competition and the organising of a new competition for designs to take into account the changes necessary in view of developments on the site. The contrast with the present display of the Parthenon Marbles in London could hardly be greater.

The upper glass gallery will be called the Parthenon Hall and will remain empty until the section of the original frieze still in the possession of the British Museum has been returned to Greece.

When archaeologists began excavating the proposed site of the Museum they uncovered an early Christian town. This caused a dilemma. It is important to keep the museum as close to the Acropolis as possible, but any area near the Acropolis is almost certain to produce important archaeological finds when fully excavated.

Finally it was decided to leave the archaeological finds where they are, as exhibits, and to build the museum above them. This secured the site for the Archaeological Museum. The site is unique as the museum would be facing the Parthenon directly. At the same time it would be possible to preserve and display the great wealth of archaeological material from other periods.

 

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