National Archaeological Museum

Drawing on the spirit of the original design – a romantic philhellenic idea of an urban landscape – the proposal creates a new setting for the monumental building. Respecting the classical hierarchy and responding to the existing topography, the plinth of the existing building is extended all the way to the street, allowing the original structure to maintain its symbolic power. In one gesture, this generates roughly 20,000 square metres of additional space including two floors of galleries beneath a raised landscape, framing the historical building with nature.

The museum garden provides a quiet, green public space elevated above the bustling city and recalls the ancient Greek ideal of a civic gathering place. The landscape, designed by Wirtz International, contains gravel paths, lawns, groups of Umbrella and Aleppo pines, evergreen Holm oaks and shrubs, referencing nineteenth-century parks. Accessible from all directions, it contains a sunken, sheltered courtyard at the centre. The existing monumental staircase is extended into this space, binding together old and new, and providing a meeting point for museum visitors and Athenians.

The monument requires significant functional and technical upgrades across both the public and back-of-house areas, including improved earthquake resilience, enhanced security standards, a stable indoor climate and better conditions for handling and storing artworks. On the ground floor, a central axis creates a coherent sequence of rooms that presents the development of Greek sculpture, culminating in the new Classical Hall. The annex, built in 1930 by George Nomikos, is transformed into a research centre housing a research library, state-of-the-art laboratories and study collections.

The extension contains the museum’s most public-facing functions – the entrance hall, museum shop, café and restaurant, as well as an auditorium and permanent and temporary exhibitions spaces. The entrance is brought forward to the street, reinforcing the museum’s relationship with the city, while the largely glazed façade offers the public views into the new building.

The plan is made up of a series of dispersed monolithic volumes that define a fluid sequence of spaces that draw visitors towards the historic building and offer oblique views into the galleries along the way. The rammed-earth walls reinforce the excavated nature of the extension and together with the play of light and shadow form distinctive settings for exhibiting artefacts and sculptures that enrich the historic exhibition spaces.