Sordo Madaleno Architects’ London office has won a competition to design a 43,000m² storage and research base for the Hungarian Museum of Natural History in Debrecen. The Debrecen Collection Centre will feature a brick-clad, 140m-long building with 28,000m² of storage, 6,000m² of study spaces, and a triple-height foyer. Designed to echo traditional Hungarian clay vessels, the building references Hungary’s geological history through its stratified brick façade, using soils from different regions.
The centre will house over 11 million objects, focusing on controlled storage and study. It’s part of the University of Debrecen Science Park, near the Natural History Museum’s new home designed by BIG. Sordo Madaleno’s team worked with építész stúdió and Buro Happold on the project.
“The centre’s staff are stewards of the objects, and the architecture becomes an extension of that stewardship,” said Fernando Sordo Madaleno, Director of the London office. “Within this layered ecology of care, the object is framed not as an isolated artefact but as an embodiment of life-worlds and landscapes that nourish reciprocal relationships.”
Image Courtesy: Architect’s journal
