BIG to top Hungarian Natural History Museum with overlapping green roofs

Danish studio BIG has revealed designs for the Hungarian Natural History Museum, which will comprise a series of “intersecting ribbons of landscape” designed to blend into its forested site in Debrecen.

Set to encompass 23,000-square-metres within the Hungarian city’s Great Forest, the museum will serve as a public and scientific destination housing exhibition space and educational facilities alongside public amenities.

Designed by BIG in collaboration with Vikár és Lukács Építész Stúdió, Museum Studio and TYPSA, the museum will replace the institution’s existing site in Budapest.

The initiative forms part of the government’s vision to establish Debrecen as a regional hub for education and culture by 2030.

“Our design is conceived as an intersection of paths and lineages,” BIG founder Bjarke Ingels said.

“Intersecting ribbons of landscape overlap to produce a series of niches and habitats, halls and galleries, blending the inside and the outside, the intimate and the mastodontic in seamless continuity,” he continued.

“The result is a manmade hill in a forest clearing; geometrically clear yet softly organic – an appropriate home for the wonders of the natural world.”

The museum’s partially sunken structure will be built from a mass timber frame wrapped with a charred timber facade and full-height glazing.

Converging at their centres, the three overlapping roofs will rise up from ground level and double as terraces with meandering walkways offering expansive views across the city.

Large plazas designed as additional space for museum activities will guide visitors into the building from all sides.

Inside, a spacious reception hall will centre the development in a “radial layout” – acting as an access point to the museum’s surrounding exhibition wings.

Renders of the space reveal lofty interiors complete with exposed timber surfaces and tiled flooring.

Above this, the building will host a library and restaurant where glazed openings will overlook the forest canopy.

Additional spaces will include a learning hub for hosting workshops along with play spaces and research labs.

According to the studios, the building will rely on on-site energy systems including geothermal loops and photovoltaic panels.

Native plants integrated into the green roofs will also aim to minimise the building’s footprint.

“Rather than simply preserving the site, the building restores and enhances it – regenerating biodiversity while quietly adapting to its surroundings,” studio partner Hanna Johansson said.

Elsewhere, the studio has revealed designs for a glulam airport embellished with decorative carvings in Bhutan and added a glass-tiled pavilion overlooking a lake in China.

The renders are courtesy of BIG. 

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