Competition entry for the new Musée des Beaux Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland, bringing together a complex brief for public exhibition spaces alongside conservation and storage facilities for the city’s large art collection.
The competition brief for this new art museum specified two different space types: on the one hand new gallery spaces illuminated by indirect natural light, and on the other hand large storage and conservation areas completely deprived of daylight. Labics’ design for the new museum translates this brief into a solid and compact monolithic block, perforated in places to allow natural daylight into the interior spaces where needed.
The concept for the new museum drew from the unique geology of its location, a site only recently reclaimed from the nearby lake. The building therefore appears to surface from the water in the shape of a solid mass, clad with local stone. The building seems to turn its back to the city, relating more directly to its surrounding landscape with water and natural light acting as integral part of the  building. The ground floor is a fluid, easily accessible public space, which flows effortlessly between the interior and the lakefront outside. The visitor is invited into the building through this airy, open and welcoming space, and is drawn through to explore the more introverted and intimate gallery spaces where the art is displayed.