Aires Matthew Museum of Sculpture and Photography in Lausanne Captured by Paul Clemence
After five years of construction, the Portuguese architectural firm Aires Matthew has completed its long-awaited mudac: the museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Art in Lausanne, Switzerland. The sculpture building is part of a new cultural district and a city regeneration plan introduced by Canton Vaud, the City of Lausanne, and the CFF (Swiss Federal Railways), which features three art museums that translate the memory of the site, echoing it. Former industrial status with prismatic geometric shapes, concrete surfaces, and sharp lines.
During his recent esplanade in Switzerland, architectural photographer Paul Clemence captured the newly inaugurated museum, highlighting its unique concrete geometry, playing shadows and lights, and how the architecture complements its surroundings.
In an unprecedented concept in Switzerland, the new district is designed to transform the Swiss city into a dynamic center of cultural innovation. The design of both interior and exterior spaces is heavily defined by the way light travels through the architecture. From the outside, the façade appears as two geometric concrete units, connected by a strip of glass or ribbon of light. From the inside, these glass strips, along with strategically-placed skylights give visitors the illusion as if they were still outside.
The project uses invisible space and a railway platform, turning it into a new venue for the city’s museum institution. Called ‘One Museum, Two Museums’, Matthew Aires ’design combines two unique museums and programma in one building. The design team describes the projects as “boxes” for photography and “boxes” for design, combined with a public gathering space that is an extension of the public space of Platform 10 Railways.
Placed around a large public space, this new geometric building has two museums: the Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts (MUDAC) on the first floor, whose function requires a lot of lighting, and the photography-dedicated Musée de l’Elysée, where lighting must be controlled strictly. The space between both museums contains public and private facilities as a natural extension of the public esplanade.
The new PLATEFORME 10 art district in Lausanne opened to the public on 18 June 2022. The inauguration of the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts (MCBA) and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (mudac), completes the new district arrangement. The museum, sitting next to the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, was designed by Barozzi Veiga.
