M HKA institution has its roots in the avant-garde, bottom-up initiatives of artists who were escaping the rigidness of institutions and sought for alternative spaces to practice art. There is a fundamental contradiction between what M HKA’s history is and what future it wants. Therefore, I decided to take over the building that exists on the plot to create the last act of appropriation and embody the spirit of the institution by this decision.

As the existing court building could not meet the requirements of the brief and it doesn’t represent any significant architectural values, I treat it as a scenography and a tool to organize a museum rather than a relic. As a result, the massing of the museum wraps and “consumes” the existing structure.

The building is a mediator between two urban qualities - the park and the riverbank promenade. Vast urban space opens for visitors as well as pedestrians who do not intend to visit the institution.

Occasionally, the exhibition part and back office blend together, so the visitor can experience a transparent museum, where boundaries are softened. What is more, exhibitions can happen in corridors or former office rooms as well as in the basement, which compliments vast spaces in the new part of the project and allows for multiple exhibitions to happen simultaneously.

The facade represents the idea of wrapping and hiding, being mostly a solid, hanging element during inactive moments, but it also has the capacity to represent what happens inside the building if needed. Different treatments of metal panels and meshes allow for various levels of transparency and reveal the insides of the institution as well as treating the building as a billboard.