Studio Campo Baeza, a Madrid architecture firm, and MAODA, an Ecuadorian office, were named first place winners by Ecuador’s Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture of a competition to design a new $100 million flagship for the National Museum of Ecuador (MuNA).
Since the announcement on July 6, the competition results have been the subject of an ongoing controversy taking hold of Quito. AN emailed MuNA for comment.
The winning design is titled “Echos del Sol,” which translates to Echoes of the Sun. It was “conceived as a box of light and shadow,” according to the architects.
Renderings of the winning design show, quite literally, a concrete box with large apertures rising upward from La Carolina Park, a historic civic space, with a secondary volume serving as the main entry point.
Barcelona-based B720 Arquitectos and Lera were named the second place winners. In third place was SANAA, Caá Porá Arquitectura, Estudio A0, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Landscape.
The competition’s three finalists were selected from a pool of 148 initial applicants from over 20 countries. Of the 148 applicants, 17 advanced to the last phase, culminating in the final three.
Alejandro Zaero-Polo, whose deanship of the Princeton School of Architecture was marred by controversy for alleged misogyny and racism, was among the competition jurors.
Memes, Memes, the Magical Fruit
MuNA is presently located in the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana building. Construction is slated to break ground on its new flagship in 2027.
Studio Campo Baeza and MAODA were announced the competition winners on Monday, July 6. On July 9, Ecuador’s Vice Minister of Culture and Heritage Romina Muñoz resigned. After Muñoz resigned, MuNA’s executive director Carlos Eduardo Montalvo Puente also stepped down.
Muñoz resigned following public criticism of a comment she made defending the first place design: “This goes beyond aesthetic preferences,” she said.
The Ecuadorian government has not confirmed the reason for Muñoz’s resignation. AN emailed Ecuador’s Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture for comment.
Muñoz’s comment sparked criticism because the winning design was derided by the public for its boxy and minimalist look, sentiment encapsulated in memes ridiculing the proposal, including one that points out its visual similarities to a previous Campo Baeza project.
One interlocutor compared Campo Baeza’s proposal to a cardboard box. Another overlaid dystopian Salvador Dalí references onto a rendering of the building, with a melting clock, gray skies, and lightning rods. In another visual critique, one observer traced a drawing of DoodleBob, a menacing cartoon character from the SpongeBob Squarepants universe, onto the rendering.
Muñoz had been active in the MuNA competition since 2023. Previously she was executive director of the National Museum of Ecuador.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has distanced himself from the project he previously championed, according to a source close to the controversy.
Back to the Drawing Board?
While the winning design was met with criticism, the second and third place designs have had positive reception on social media.
The second place design by B720 Arquitectura and Lera is titled “Typography of Memory.” Compositionally, the design is a low-lying structure with volumes that protrude outward, creating dynamic shadow lines.
The facade is defined by ample glazing, on the bottom half, and opaque massing on the upper half.
The third place design by SANAA, Caá Porá Arquitectura, Estudio A0, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Landscape is titled “Living Strata,” and is inspired by pro-Columbia and post-Columbia cultures.
“Living Strata,” per a design statement, celebrates the “synthesis between diversity and unity, between landscape and culture, between the ancestral and the contemporary.” It emphasizes “collective memory, gathering, and connection with the cosmos.”
Qube Media, a local outlet, launched a poll to gauge public opinion of the winning design and sentiment for alternative proposals.
There is also a petition launched by members of the public calling upon the Ecuadorian government to reverse the decision and choose a different design.
The petition has almost 20,000 signatories and counting. It has three basic concerns: a perceived lack of landscaping and connection to La Carolina Park, a lack of connection with the country’s “national identity,” and a lack of technical and financial transparency.
This is an ongoing story.