The Fine Arts Museum in Badajoz, Spain has now outgrown three spaces. Its first home was in a Moorish palace complex, its next home was in a 19th-century mansion, and now the museum's 1,200-plus artworks, including paintings by Picasso and Dalí, are split between the historic mansion and a striking new extension with a perforated exterior. Built by the Madrid firm Estudio Arquitectura Hago, the white concrete extension with thousands of decorative holes connects to the red-plastered older structure via a courtyard.
Centuries newer than the other houses on the street, the two recent buildings are roughly the same height and width as their 19th-century neighbors, and fit in nicely. Indeed, the Fine Arts Museum in Badajoz was just nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award.
The architects explained their delightful hole-punch exterior as "a message in the skin of the building." So apparently they didn't take inspiration from a Scantron test. Photos, below:
All photos by Fernando Alda courtesy of Estudio Arquitectura Hago
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