Winning M9 Competition Entry by Sauerbruch Hutton

The entry by Anglo-German practice Sauerbruch Hutton has recently won the M9 International Architectural Design Competition, the new cultural pole that will open in Venice-Mestre, Italy in 2014.

The Berlin-based firm was declared the winner of the competition at M9 / A New Museum for a New City, an exhibition on the competition designs arranged in the premises of the future cultural pole in Mestre. Six firms participated in the competition: Agence Pierre-Louis Faloci(France), Carmassi Studio di Architettura (Italy), David Chipperfield Architects (Great Britain/Italy), Mansilla+Tuñón Arquitectos (Spain), Sauerbruch Hutton (Germany) and Souto Moura Arquitectos (Portugal).

The jury, chaired by Giuliano Segre, president of the Fondazione di Venezia (which conceived and sponsors this project), comprising Cesare Annibaldi, Roberto Cecchi, Plinio Danieli, Marino Folin, Carlo Magnani, and Giorgio Orsoni expressed its satisfaction with and appreciation for the high standard of the designs presented and, after careful examination of the six competition designs, chose the Sauerbruch Hutton design, for the following reasons: “The Sauerbruch Hutton design successfully combines the needs of a modern museum with the technical restrictions and urban features of Mestre. It forms a brand-new relationship with the city, carving out new public spaces and accesses as well as bringing total permeability and fruition to the area. With a cutting-edge structural and systems concept that is eco-friendly and energy saving, it offers a first-class design solution and extremely flexible use.”

The winning design and those by the other international firms that entered the design competition are being shown in the M9 - A New Museum for a New City exhibition, a fringe event of the 12^th International Architecture Exhibition – Venice Biennale, and open to the public with free admission until November 21.

M9 - A New Museum for a New City promises to be much more than an architecture exhibition. The models, films, interviews, pictures and stories it presents will enable visitors to picture some of the themes being illustrated in the future museum, centred on the major changes witnessed in the “short century”.