STATUS
IN DESIGN
CLIENT
DIF
TYPOLOGY
Culture
SIZE M2/FT2
22,900 / 246,494
SHARE
Located on a former sports ground at the edge of Debrecen’s Great Forest, Nagyerdő, the new Hungarian Natural History Museum is defined by three overlapping volumes that rise and fall with the landscape.
The museum will replace the existing institution in Budapest, supporting the government’s vision to establish Debrecen as a key regional hub by 2030. Commissioned by the museum and the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the building will house permanent and temporary exhibition halls, educational and research facilities, public amenities and back-of-house spaces, creating a new cultural and scientific destination in Hungary’s eastern region.
PRAGMATIC PROGRAM BARS
— The museum's program is organized into thee functional zones: exhibition spaces, public areas, and back-of-house operations. These zones are arranged in parallel 28-meter-wide bars, ensuring a clear spatial rhythm that balances public accessibility with behind-the-scenes functionality.
RADIAL PROGRAM ORGANISATION
— Rooted in the idea of a flexible and independent exhibition space, the museum unfolds in a star-shaped plan that responds in all directions to its forest setting. This radial layout blends inside and out, supporting a 360-degree experience of nature and culture.
CONTEXT INTEGRATION
— Blurring the line between building and landscape, the museum takes on a low, undulating form that nestles into the terrain. Partially embedded in the ground, the structure’s ribbons offer a controlled climate for exhibitions while merging with the surrounding forest.
GIVING BACK TO THE FOREST
— Where human intervention once cleared the land, the museum now restores it. Green pockets and planted roofs return the site to the forest, fostering biodiversity and creating new habitats for native flora and fauna.
DESTINATION AND CONNECTIONS
— The museum’s geometry extends like pathways into the woods, inviting movement from all directions. At its highest point, a lookout offers panoramic views across Nagyerdő, transforming the museum into both a destination and a point of orientation within the forest.
RESPONSIVE FACADE
— The museum’s façade adapts to its dual context—balancing the controlled interior conditions needed for artefacts with a visual and physical openness to the forest. Transparency, shading, and materiality shift across the structure to mediate between nature and the exhibition environment.
A NEW MUSEUM
— The new Hungarian Natural History Museum becomes an intersection of forest, city and science.
Approaching from any direction, visitors are met with open plazas, winding forest paths and framed views through and over the building. The museum is accessible from all sides, integrating it into both the urban fabric and the surrounding natural landscape. The arrival is marked by a generous southern plaza that forms a meeting point for community life and museum activities.
Inside, the reception hall acts as a central compass point, offering glimpses into the surrounding exhibition wings – five for permanent galleries and one for temporary shows and public programs. Above, a library and restaurant offer views into the forest canopy, while below, a learning hub hosts workshops, play spaces and research labs for students, families and staff.
“Natural history is a subject dear to me – so dear that I named my oldest son Darwin. To that end, it is a great honor to have been entrusted with the authorship of The Hungarian Natural History Museum in the great forest of Debrecen. Our design is conceived as an intersection of paths and lineages. Intersecting ribbons of landscape overlap to produce a series of niches and habitats, halls and galleries, blending the inside and the outside, the intimate and the mastodontic in seamless continuity. The result is a manmade hill in a forest clearing; geometrically clear yet softly organic - an appropriate home for the wonders of the natural world.”
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Minimizing its footprint, the museum is partially hidden in the terrain. The sloping green roofs are planted with native species, offering habitats for local flora and fauna while visually extending the park over the museum. Vegetation continues through the site and into the building, offering areas for rest and gatherings for the public year-round.
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Bjarke Ingels Angel Barreno Gutiérrez Hanna Ida Johansson Jakub Fratczak Juan Carpio Camila Antonella Mina Nicolas Bachmann Bellido Dominika Kłopotek Gian Marco Prisco Olivia Sarra Gómez Alessandra Baroni Camila Pagnoncelli
COLLABORATORS
Vikár és Lukács Építész Stúdió
Museum Studio - London
TYPSA
