Reinterpretation of National Museum of Prehistory / Ja-Sheng Chen Architects

In 1999, the National Museum of Prehistory, which was designed by renowned postmodern architect Michael Graves, opened in a rural place that is about 5km away from Taitung City. For over 20 years, parts of the place in this grand building have not functioned properly, such as the complicated circulation system for visitors. Also, Mountain Plaza and the greenhouse restaurant could not work well due to the scorching climate in the Tropical area.

The house is located within an ecological reserve near Valle de Bravo in the State of Mexico. It is composed of independent volumes positioned at different levels of the land to take advantage of the views and maximize the facades with southern orientation. This layout allows for multiple pathways. At the highest point of the land are the three main volumes of the house, which form an interior garden that opens up to the mountain. The rest of the program is situated among gardens and has a more private character. Each of the inhabited spaces has a hallway or an access patio, which serve as transition spaces between the forest and the house, and also feature covered terraces and gardens that extend the house outward.

(RE)Invention. The curation project representing Brazil at the 19th MIA - International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, is part of a reflection on recent archaeological discoveries of ancestral infrastructures in the Amazon territory to consider contradictions and question the socio-environmental conditions of contemporary cities. Represented in two acts, (RE)INVENTION constructs a narrative that traverses time and territories.

Conversation during the first house visit - Richard: "It's actually quite wonderful just the way it is. The rest doesn't seem so important."
Matej: "Yes, beauty can wear off. It's just... the house kind of turns its back on us, don't you think?"