Adobe Museum of Digital Media
While it’s since been canned, with Adobe deciding to put the resources toward “corporate responsibility initiatives” instead, the Adobe Museum of Digital Media lives on through the eye-catching weirdness of its alien cactus design. “As social and cultural discourse moves increasingly to the internet, artists, designers and other cultural producers are turning to digital media to explore and express their ideas. Founded in this spirit, the AMDM will feature programs and works in fields as diverse as visual art, film, performance, design, architecture and social media.”
Zayed National Museum by Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners aims to “combine a highly efficient, contemporary form with elements of traditional Arabic design and hospitality” in the Zayed National Museum, set to be built on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island as a monument and memorial to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE. The lightweight steel towers are sculpted to resemble the features of a bird’s wing.
Museo Soumaya, Mexico City
Architecture firm FR-EE / Fernando Romero Enterprise created one of Mexico City’s most striking landmarks in the form of the Soumaya Museum, an eclectic art collection of nearly 70,000 objects from the 15th to mid-20th centuries. “A skin of 16,000 hexagonal tiles of mirrored steel, references the traditional colonial ceramic-tiled building facades and gives the museum a diverse appearance depending on the weather and the viewer’s vantage point, while optimizing the preservation and durability of the entire building.”
Omotesando Street Fashion Museum
Virtually all of the submissions created for the Omotesando Street Fashion Museum design competition were a little out-of-this-world, but perhaps none so boldly as the winning entry, dubbed “Wearing the woven gown.” The building’s facade features an outer shell outfitted with thread-like solar tubes that supply the energy for the museum, which will focus on the history of fashion.
