archeological site museum
location: paracas, peru
client: Peruvian Ministry of Culture
design team: s. barclay – j.p. Crousse
project team: r. apolaya
built surface: 1170 m2
competition: 2008 - first prize
building completion: 2012
opening to the public: 2016
photographers: erieta attali, jp crousse
prizes: Woman of the Year Award for Sandra Barclay / Leading Culture Destination - LCD Award / Best Architectural Design Prize - Bienal Panamericana de Quito BAQ 2016 / XII Bienal del Perú - first prize - culture building
published in: Arquitectura Viva 211 - 2019 / Architectural Review 1449 - 2018 / A+U 568 - 2018 / C3 392 - 2017 / Casabella 867 - 2016 / Summa+ 154 - 2016
An archaeological museum must find the delicate balance between heritage conservation exposed and release to the public. A site museum, as the Paracas, acquires the additional challenge of having to integrate into the landscape that was the cradle of this culture, which is now part of the most important biological and landscaping reserve of the Peruvian coastal desert.
The project is implemented practically on the ruins of what was its predecessor, destroyed by an earthquake in 2007. It retakes its rectangular geometry and compactness. A crack or flaw breaks in this volume, separating the museum and conservation spaces from the ones dedicated to interaction and learning (workshops, meeting rooms, and services). The different accesses to these spaces are located along this "crack".
A seemingly contradictory hybridization between the Precolumbian labyrinthine organization, and the fluid, dynamic contemporary space, is explored in the interior.
The environmental harshness of the Paracas Desert and the preservation requirements of the collection are solved with an "environmental regulator device", that defines the architectural volumes and spaces. This device allows providing controlled natural and artificial light, natural ventilation and cooling, and act as a transition space between exhibition rooms. Its geometry reinterprets the motifs of the Paracas textiles, which were its most outstanding technological and artistic expressions.
The museum is built entirely with salt-resistant reddish pozzolan cement. The exposed concrete and polished cement that constitute its materiality, blends with the neighboring red dunes. The patina left by builders in the polished cement gives the museum a ceramic look that resembles the pre-Columbian ceramics that are exposed inside.
