Competition Swiss National Museum Zurich. The project proposes to demolish the wing housing the former craft school. In this way an up-to-date museum building can be created next to the main station, with an appearance that provides an adequate framework for the contents of the dawning 21st Century. The eastern point was chosen so as to utilise the prominent urban location to set an attractive architectonic accent to the city of Zurich. This development should increase the urbanity and density of the area close to the station. The new building volume is to be understood as an urban counterpart which on the one hand is generated from the various urban energies, and on the other does justice to the high functional and operational demands. It is a compact building constructed close to the existing museum with 3 storeys and a ground floor, built on the spot where the craft-school wing was adjoined. The new museum building breaks out of the orthogonal system of the existing National Museum, and whilst adopting almost the same lines of the historic building along the Museumstrasse, towards the tip of the grounds and the Limmat the building is given a dynamic by folds in the façade. The new façade is completely covered with ivy so that the greenery remains in winter. Thus an important decorative element of the picturesque Middle Ages, namely overgrowth on parts of the building, becomes the main characteristic of the new building and reconciles the fairy-tale-like castle with the large volume and functional characteristic of the museum. In addition, the park landscape at the apex of the grounds on the Museumstrasse is thematised and a unity of the old and new museum buildings with the grounds is created. The "soft" vegetative façade contrasts with the "hard" expansive glazing.

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