TheMuseum of Experiences in Barcelona is a project by Joanna Lipnicka and Erik Szczepanski of the University of Arts in Poznan submitted to the international competition "Haptic. Design a Museum for Materials." The architectural concept that allows the exploration of the diversity and properties of materials through the senses and experiences received the second prize!
The competition "Haptic.Design a Museum for Materials" was organized by UNI's online platform, bringing together more than 150,000 architects and designers from around the world. The task was to design a Museum of Materials in the post-industrial district of Poblenou in Barcelona. The facility was to present building materials in the best possible way, promote knowledge and educate about the role of materials in construction and architecture. The organizers wanted participants to pay attention to the physical, tactile and visual properties of building materials, both through the exhibition proposal and the designed building itself. It was important for museum visitors to be able to touch, explore, be inspired and gain knowledge about the properties of materials and construction techniques.
The museum is located in Barcelona's post-industrial Poblenou neighborhood
© Joanna Lipnicka, Eryk Szczepanski
Second prize for UAP students
Forty-five teams from all over the world participated in the competition, and their works were evaluated by a jury consisting of Iban Carpintero Lopez (EXIT Architects), Antono Vaillo (Vaillo + Irigaray Architects), Miguel Hernández, Esther López, Jule Potter (AF6 Arquitectura), Jose Maria Olmedo Espigares (DTR_studio architects). Among the awarded projects was a proposal by students of the University of Arts in Poznan. The Museum of Experiences by Joanna Lipnicka and Erik Sczepanski received second prize.
The building creates a coherent space with the neighboring factory
© Joanna Lipnicka, Eryk Szczepański
The award-winning museum project is located in Barcelona's Poblenou neighborhood, known for its industrial history. The proposed building was designed to create a coherent public space between the museum and the neighboring post-industrial buildings of the Can Ricart factory. The students' main goal was to integrate the tactile experience on three levels: the city and the museum's surroundings, the museum's architecture and the exhibition itself. The museum is connected to the historic buildings of the neighboring factory by an intimately shaped public space. The authors' assumption was to create an intimate space matching in scale not only the buildings of Barcelona's quarters, but above all the low-rise buildings of the factory. Reminiscent of a small town, the buildings isolate from the hustle and bustle of Barcelona and allow the experience of the architecture, and the materials on display in the museum.
The museum is finished with natural and local materials
© Joanna Lipnicka, Eryk Szczepański
natural materials and varied textures
The lump of the museum, located in the corner of the quarter, consists of cubicles connected by a glass bypass, surrounding an intimate, shaded patio. Functional zones are divided into separate cubes to imitate the scale of factory buildings. The building is finished with three natural materials inspired by the architecture of Barcelona and the Can Ricart factory: local sandstone, red brick and wood. In addition to minimalist forms and a modest selection of finishing materials, the museum features a rich variety of textures and the penetration of exterior cladding into the interior. The raw, variously finished materials encourage interaction with the building, so that the building itself, viewed from the street as well as inside, becomes part of an exhibition and a story about the haptic properties of materials.
The body of the building is made up of cubes connected by a glazed walkway
© Joanna Lipnicka, Eryk Szczepański
exhibition as a path of experience
The exhibition was designed by young architects as a path of experience, led not only through the exhibition halls, but also through the patio and the building's surroundings. The museum engages the viewer from the first visual contact, through solutions such as intimate plantings, variation of texture on the facade, lowering of the area at the main entrance, view openings, and contrasts of light and shadow. In addition to a linear tour of the museum, visitors have the opportunity to explore the site, wandering and discovering the building and its surroundings. The tour begins as early as the street. The user begins the walk along an avenue of trees isolating outside stimuli, and at the end of the avenue descends to a lowered plaza with an entrance. The visible slope and greenery in the foyer make it clear that the museum is below ground level.
The exhibition was designed as a path of experience
© Joanna Lipnicka, Eryk Szczepański
experiences and senses
The exhibition is enclosed in three dark cubicles connected by glass connectors that allow Mediterranean light to permeate the interior. Each exhibition room is devoted to different ways of experiencing and engages different senses - through tactile, auditory and thermal sensations. The exhibition continues in the courtyard, reminiscent of the green and intimate courtyards of Barcelona. All artifacts are displayed in a way that allows interaction with them.
The courtyard also features a sensory garden
© Joanna Lipnicka, Eryk Szczepanski
The first cubicle contains an installation of movable human-scale blocks made of various materials. This allows visitors to empirically discover the weight and texture of a particular material. The second exhibit room deals with the acoustic properties of materials. The user can discover the sounds produced by raw materials through impacts. The third cubicle shows the thermal properties of materials. Here the exhibition is made up of heated walls made of various raw materials. The main part of the exhibition is also a floor covered with gravel and crumbs of materials, part of which was designed as a water reservoir. The last part of the exhibition is organized outdoors, in the courtyard as a sensory garden that encourages people to experience materials by walking barefoot.
The project was created as part of the Integrated Design course at the University of Arts in Poznań, under the supervision of Dr. Elżbieta Raszei prof. UAP and Magdalena Wilczyńska, MA.
