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Competition Underway for Kunsthaus Zürich Extension

A winner will be chosen by the end of 2008.

Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 12/20/2007 12:00:00 AM

Swiss museum Kunsthaus Zürich is hosting an international competition for an architect to design an extension. Pre-qualification applications are due February 1.

Twenty applicants will be chosen to begin design work in April--pending the approval of a project loan by the Zurich city legislature. The winning submission will be selected by the end of 2008. If necessary, several designs may be picked for a second round of anonymously submitted revisions which would take place in the beginning of 2009.

The competition is open to all architects with a portfolio of completed work and evidence of both professional and organizational capability. The winner will be selected by an international jury headed by Walter Kielholz, the president of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, the historic art association that presides over the museum, and moderated by Carl Fingerhuth, a world renowned urban planning expert.

The extension will include flexible galleries for the display of new media, prints, drawings, and photography, and classically-designed galleries for the Buhrle Collection--the basis of the museum's new focus on French painting--as well as 19th century art and classical modernism. The project will be incorporated in Zurich's University District master plan and located adjacent to Zurich's old town. Part of the extension--and its connection to the existing museum--will be housed underground.

Applications and an updated list of jury members can be found here.