Culture & traditions: The Museum of Nuragic and Contemporary Art will be designed by Zaha Hadid

Official news since 23th of October: the new Museum of Nuragic and Contemporary Art on the seafront in Cagliari will be designed by the Brit-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. In 1993 Hadid caused sensation for the project of her fire brigade building at Weil am Rhein, in Germany. The architect, aged 56, was in 2004 the first woman to be awarded the Prizker Price, considered the Nobel Price for Architecture.

Zaha Hadid wins the competition for the Museum of Nuragic and Contemporary Art in Cagliari

More than 100 national and international studios partecipated at the competition, run by the Regional Council of Culture and in collaboration with the Politecnico of Milan and Domus magazine. After a pre-selection, the Jury, composed by the administrator Catherine David, the architect Luigi Snozzi, the designer Antonio Marras and the Head of MAN museum at Nuoro, Cristiana Collu, have chosen amongst ten projects, that by Hadid.

The president of the Jury and director of the magazine Domus, Stefano Boeri, explained why: “The jury appreciated the extraordinary contextual sensitivity of the new architectural entity that, acting as a ‘coralline concretion’, accompanies, stitches up and reconfigures an entire stretch of the seafront at Cagliari”. He added “the project will represent as well as a new landmark for Cagliari, an opportunity for new experiences – both perceptive and corporeal – and a place for the development and sedimentation of fertile contaminations between the past and future identity of the area and the island of Sardinia”.

The Mediterranean Museum of Nuragic and Contemporary Art will be built on the new seafront of the Sant’Elia area at Cagliari. The Building will be constructed with 2 to 3 floors and white, curving walls. The 8000 square metres Museum will bring together Contemporary art and the richness of the Nuragic age.

The designs of the pre-selection will be on show for the next few weeks at the Lazzaretto di Sant’Elia, near to the site where the museum will be built, to allow citizens a chance to evaluate the design ideas proposed.

Edited by SARDINIANATOUR, Nov.2006