MET Studio designs galleries for new sustainability-focused Mexican centre

The consultancy is designing three out of the six galleries at the new 14,000 sq m engagement centre, which takes the working title Museo de Ciencias Ambientales (Museum of Environmental Sciences) or MCA.

Among the consultancies working on the designs of the other three galleries is New York practice Thinc.

The centre forms part of what MET Studio terms ‘a major new cultural quarter’ in Guadalajara. The city has seen its population double in size in the last 34 years, resulting in ‘significant challenges for the health, wealth and wellbeing of its citizens as part of a future which needs to be sustainable’, says the consultancy.

Around two years ago MET Studio created the masterplan for the museum, working with Academy Studios on the project. MET Studio chairman Alex McCuaig subsequently sat on the panel for the architecture competition to appoint the project architects, choosing Oslo and New York-based practice Snøhetta.

MET Studio Design Director Peter Karn says, ‘The audience for the project is very much the young people of the region who will inherit the results of today’s and tomorrow’s environmental decisions and who will be encouraged to engage with these important issues.

‘Our design very much embraces this by incorporating a contemporary interpretation of indigenous styles and bringing a social aspect to the gallery spaces and interactives.’

The MET Studio-designed galleries will explore people and sustainability, and the consultancy is working with former head of exhibit and innovation and special projects at London’s Natural History Museum Bob Bloomfield to develop these themes.

MET Studio says, ‘The project aims to help people explore, understand and engage with the interconnectedness of the city with the surrounding environment, on which it depends for its resources and, ultimately, its survival.’

The museum is due to break ground in 2015.