The birth of the Swiss Confederation, conventionally dating back to a distant 1291, is celebrated in Switzerland every 1 August. This year, the city of Zurich is celebrating the anniversary in a special way, by inaugurating its renovated national museum.
The works that have given the National Museum Zurich its new wing, which will soon house new exhibition galleries, an auditorium and a library, have now come to an end.
The new building, in raw concrete, was designed by architects Christ & Gantenbein to stand in exciting contrast to the historical structure, designed in the late nineteenth century by renowned Swiss architect Gustav Gull.
“The expressive folds in the rooftops can be understood as a contemporary interpretation of Gull’s articulated historicism” added the firm. “The new is thus inconceivable without the old, but is nonetheless unmistakably modern.“
The ceremony to inaugurate the museum is scheduled for the evening of 31 July and the day of 1 August 2016 and promises to be a unique opportunity to get to know every detail of the new building.
The programme includes exhibitions, concerts, dances, children’s workshops and, of course, a party that will enliven this magical Zurich night.
Photo credits:
New museum wing pictures by Roman Keller
Old museum portrait by Roland zh, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons