JAVIER MOSQUERA GONZALEZ Architects
MUSEUM OF CAPITALISM
HONORABLE MENTION
Type: Open international competition.
Location: California. United States of America.
Year: 2016.
Program: Museum.
Size: 4.100m2
A way to be free, a place to leave those useless things we all buy, again and again, because we are told to buy them, not because we need them. In the middle of an empty space, accessible from everywhere, its circular shape would attract people from every single place of the city. Inside it, several volumes crossing each other creating some courts will define the whole building.
To enter the building, you just have to bring one of those things and leave it inside the freedom boxes. Then, you can keep walking and enjoy your life again, free of, at least, some worries. On the other hand, if someone needs something, he can come to the museum and get it from those freedom boxes, for free. Transforming the way it is understood to have something "new" at home. Apart from these rooms, there should be some private and service areas where visitors can have a rest and forget their problems in order to connect again with themselves. The other areas of the museum are open air spaces where people can meet each other and live with nature, sun and wind.
This proposal tries to create public areas where things can happen, for the people and with the people. Being conscious of what we have, what we don’t need, and who will need it, is the main goal of this proposal. Like a big warehouse where people can leave and get what they need. A new way to understand the capitalism, not saying that is just something wrong but, at the same time, showing that is has to be controlled by the users.
Green areas, meeting places, open air exhibitions, events… all those areas are for the people. And the “walls” that separate one from the other is where the museum has to show its potential. The real message of the museum lies in those areas, those freedom boxes, to make to common open air spaces a real place to meet people, happy with themselves.
As it is not a fixed proposal, it can be built in several stages. A very simple way to build it, raw and honest materials, would result in a building made by the citizens, so they can feel it as a part of them, for the city.
Made by them and for them.