RAPA NUI MUSEUM
Competition Entry
Design Team:
Daniel Lazo, Gabriel Cáceres.
Collaborators:
Tomislav Mímica, Diego Melero.
Location:
Rapa Nui, V Region. Chile.
Built Area:
7300 m2
Project Year:
2024
Materials:
Pre-cast Concrete, steel, glass.
Renders:
Tomislav Mimica
MASTERPLAN
“The Garden of Museums”
The masterplan proposes a building built with landscapes.
It is conceived as a large garden, composed of a sequence of diverse and sometimes contradictory landscapes: natural or artificial; exterior, covered, or interior; public or intimate; of worship, culture, or memory. These are contained by sinuous contours of stone and concrete—like enormous Manavai—which in turn act as thresholds that connect, organize, and give meaning to the sequence. Depending on their size, they can define both large open areas and programmatic pavilions.
The shape of the contours is defined by two main objectives:
1. In addition to containing, it seeks to recognize the significant elements pre-existing on the site—natural and built—by incorporating them into the sequence: embracing the tree masses and bringing their greenery into the pavilions and gardens; redefining the remains of the farmland as part of a museum collection of historical objects; and framing the unobstructed views of the Poike Volcano and Maunga Pu'i to the east.
2. It seeks to ensure the configuration of a large, open, public central space—independent of the MRN's operations—that organizes the complex. This space unfolds with a marked eastward direction, toward the Poike and the Ceremonial Esplanade that crowns the Garden.
RAPA NUI MUSEUM
“The Black Stain and the Lamps”.
The museum's architecture is conceived as a journey, and is built through the intersection of two forms: the first, which adapts to the landscape like magma, and which owes its geometry, color, and materiality to the island's megalithic architecture and its geography. This form contains the open spaces and the buildings.
The second form is born of functional efficiency; it is a set of boxes containing enclosures, but when they emerge from the black stain, they do so as seven lamps that guide the visitor on their journey toward the east, the ceremonial space, and the Poike.
Boxes
The project groups each area of the MRN into regular volumes, which are distributed on the site based on their need to relate to each other and to the existing environment.
Contours
Walls constructed from basalt-colored precast concrete columns, spaced 120 cm apart, envelop the programmatic boxes, like large stone taupea.
The space between the columns can be completely traversed—by visitors or the landscape—, translucent with glass, or closed with stone, when needed.
This intermediate space protects from direct solar radiation, naturally ventilates much of the project, and its columns reduce wind speed.
Floor
The floor of the museum and annex pavilion mimics the natural slope of the terrain, correcting it to ensure universal accessibility or when the program requires horizontality.
