Ecuador’s national museum picks new design for $100m home following pushback to original selection and resignations

A team led by Japanese architecture firm Sanaa has been selected to design a new $100m home for the Museo Nacional del Ecuador (Muna) in Quito, after the government annulled the results of an earlier international competition amid social media backlash. Founded in 1969, Muna has never had a permanent home and is currently housed in the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, limiting display to a small fraction of its 1.2 million objects spanning roughly 12,000 years; the planned building is about 36,000 sq. m. The winning proposal, “Living Strata,” by Sanaa with Caá Porá Arquitectura, Estudio A0, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Landscape, envisions layered forms with gardens and terraces extending La Carolina Park into the museum and circular shapes referencing ancestral gathering spaces. The original competition ended 6 July with “Ecos del sol” by Estudio Campo Baeza and Maoda selected from 17 finalists, but after criticism, vice minister of culture Romina Muñoz was asked to resign on 9 July and infrastructure and transport minister Roberto Luque announced the annulment on 10 July.

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