For the first time in its history, the Prix Versailles, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is unveiling the World’s Most Beautiful Museums List for 2024: seven newly opened or reopened mu- seums that simultaneously serve creativity, the reflection of local heritage and ecological efficiency, and that leave extraordinary imprints on their environments.
They will all be competing for three 2024 World Titles – Prix Versailles, Interior and Exterior – whose laureates will be announced at UNESCO Headquarters by late November.
Jérôme Gouadain, Secretary General of the Prix Versailles, is delighted that the momentum establi- shed by museum buildings will now be better recognised:
“Museums provide singular settings conducive to intercultural dialogue. Bolstered by technology, they now deliver ever more immersive experiences, participate in the dissemination of knowledge and help form the tastes of their visitors.
By creating the World’s Most Beautiful Museums List, we also wanted to emphasise the importance of wonder, which elevates the human gaze and allows us to be surprised.
Because of what they are, and what they are intended to be, museums fully contribute to the goals of intelligent sustainable development.”
The other World Selections – Hotels, Restaurants, Emporiums, Airports, Campuses, Passenger Stations and Sports – will be announced between July and September.
WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL MUSEUMS LIST 2024
A4 Art Museum
Chengdu, China
Grand Egyptian Museum
Giza, Egypt
Smritivan Earthquake Museum
Bhuj, India
Simose Art Museum
Hiroshima, Japan
Paleis Het Loo
Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Oman Across Ages Museum
Manah, Oman
Polish History Museum
Warsaw, Poland
A4 Art Museum
Chengdu, China
images © Tektonn Architects
Luxehills, in the suburbs of Chengdu, is a small hillside with a unique architectural nature in that, at the turn of the millennium, its urbani- sation was strictly planned, modelled after a town in Tuscany, with a country club, a church and an art museum – the A4 – standing on its heights.
In one of China’s most populated cities, reno- vating and reorganising a museum built ac- cording to 18th century Italian plans posed an immense challenge.
To match the scale of the site, the original building was divided into floors, three above ground and two below. The latter now fea- ture impressive exhibition spaces, while the exposed floors continue to retain the welco- ming, bucolic face of a Florentine square.
The challenge was met by Tektonn Architects, a firm originally founded in Paris that relocated to Chengdu in 2018, which surely explains the museum’s obvious ties to the astonishing his- tory of an area that is both picturesque and contemporary.
Grand Egyptian Museum
Giza, Egypt
images © Grand Egyptian Museum
In the vast atrium of the Grand Egyptian Mu- seum, Pharaoh Ramses seems to be welco- ming visitors into the twists and turns of time. It matters little to the divine king that it took 20 years to build this new palace – the firm Hene- ghan Peng Architects having won the competi- tion in 2003 – since Ramses has the entire past and future in front of him here.
Ancient Egyptians used the fourth dimension in their design to ensure the sun would face the king, and now they illuminate the entrance by common agreement.
After admiring incredible riches, climbing the grand staircase and arriving on the top floor, at the edge of the Giza Plateau, visitors disco- ver the impressive sight of the three pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. They can then appreciate that, “from the heights of these py- ramids” – and in this museum – “40 centuries of history look down upon” them.
Smritivan Earthqake Museum
Bhuj, India
images © Vinay Panjwani
Natural catastrophes do not discriminate based on age, sex or religion. And so it was for the 12,932 victims of the 7.6 magnitude ear- thquake in Smritivan, in the state of Gujarat. Nor do the memorial and museum, designed by architect Rajeev Kathpalia, make any such distinctions, with 12,932 trees planted on the 800,000 m2 site, irrigated thanks to the construction of 50 check-dam reservoirs on which 12,932 names are engraved.
In this devastated, arid land, there is now a luxuriant forest forming the backdrop for a museum inspired by local architecture and the ruins of the fortress overlooking the site. A winding path connects the different galleries running up an incline, underscoring both the drama of the terrible tragedy and the peace that comes from renaturalisation.
Smritivan is a tribute to resilience which has become a pilgrimage destination and a place of refuge for anyone seeking comfort in na- ture.
Simose Art Museum
Hiroshima, Japan
images © Hiroyuki Hirai
Back in 2002, for Expo.02 in Murten, Switzer- land, the architect Jean Nouvel, 2008 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, first imagined a temporary monolith weighing nearly 4,000 tonnes yet appearing to buoyantly float on the surface of the lake. A space odyssey! What was dreamt up by the one was later magnified by another, Shigeru Ban, 2014 Pritzker Prize win- ner, at the Simose Art Museum, in the form of eight mobile galleries with walls made of coloured glass that light up at night over the water of a reflecting pool. This symbolic sce- nery amplifies the physical scenery of the Seto Inland Sea with a nod to the beauty of the Se-touchi Islands.
The structure blends with the garden of seaso- nal plants and flowers which served as motifs for the French artist and designer Emile Gallé (1846-1904), whose work makes up a signifi- cant portion of the museum’s collections.
Despite the concept’s hefty ambitions, visitors are greeted by a canopy on a welcoming scale.
Paleis Het Loo
Apeldoorn, Netherlands
images © Paleis Het Loo
The extension of Paleis Het Loo, one of the country’s most renowned and most popular museums, drew its inspiration from the pro- portions of the Baroque palace and its histori- cal environment. Built in 1686 as a royal hun- ting palace, it later became the residence of Stadholder-King William III and his wife Mary Stuart.
To establish a balance between old and new, a monumental extension bathed in natural light was built under the forecourt.
This is where the artistry of KAAN Architecten came into place, having had the intuition to pay homage to the hydraulic systems em- ployed by the palace’s historic gardens by creating new, shallow ponds that, in addition to reflecting the monumental palace, would allow daylight to enter, creating a radiant ef- fect down below.
This design transformed the grand foyer into the beating heart of an elegant, understated edifice, in keeping with the lavish image asso- ciated with a palace.
Oman Across Ages Museum
Manah, Oman
images © Oman Across Ages Museum
Drawing from 800 million years of geological history, the Sultanate of Oman has taken a grandiose new step that is a must-try expe- rience.
Located at the gateway to the desert, 160 ki- lometres from Muscat, the town of Manah is rich in monumental citadels dating back to the 18th century. Those fortresses bear witness to the country’s longstanding interest in architec- ture and technology.
With the extraordinary scenery of the Hajar Mountains looming on the horizon, the towe- ring spike of the new museum, Oman Across Ages, designed by Cox Architecture, reflects the beauty and power of those “secret moun- tains” whose peaks rise 2,000 metres into the air.
This seminal structure lets travellers know that a new destination awaits them there, in the arid landscape, and that a welcoming, contemporary oasis, offering protection from the elements, now showcases an age-old culture in an ode to Omani engineering.
Polish History Museum
Warsaw, Poland
images © Polish History Museum
The mission of this history museum is subtly etched into the outer walls of this monolith of stone. Located in the Warsaw Citadel, next to the Polish Army Museum and the Katyn Mu- seum, the site is even more closely tied to the country’s history given that it is part of one of the biggest and most modern museum com- plexes in all of Europe.
The architectural firm WXCA’s idea was to co- ver the façades with slabs of marble arranged in horizontal strips to underscore the layered structure of the stone, making it possible to add diversity to the different sections through variations in tone and texture.
The relief of this bold layout, which even leans into the abstract at points, is a reference to the history of Poland through a selection of sym- bols of its architecture, from the Middle Ages to the modern era of the 20th century.
In other words, attentive visitors can read the museum’s mission in its façades.
