1. PRIZE FOR THE MUSEUM DESIGN

We are delighted that our submission won the international competition for the new natural history museum in the S. Caterina monastery complex in Locarno. Many thanks to the entire entry team for the inspiring collaboration:

Architecture: :mlzd, Biel and Buzzi Architetti, Locarno
Landscape architecture: Chavez Biedermann Landscape Architects, Basel
Engineering office: Bauing. Bassetti, Zurich

The jury's reasoning: The project best interprets the framework of the permanent exhibition. The desire to highlight the particularities of nature in the Canton of Ticino and to see them in a larger context gives the museographic proposal a great quality. This approach also makes it possible to "personalise" the museum and distinguish it from other, more generalist natural history museums.

The museographic concept is very detailed, both in terms of content and scenographic solutions. The departments are physically connected by a ring walkway and visually by a full-height cenitally lit space (canon de lumière). The temporary exhibitions are either accessible via a separate entrance or arranged in continuity with the path through the permanent exhibition. The lift, intended as a time-travelling machine, becomes an integral part of the exhibition path.

All the suggestions regarding the educational use of the gardens, the distribution of the work areas and the visual quality of the entrance were perfectly implemented.

Further details will follow and will be shown at the press conference on 23 February 2023 in Locarno.