Description
Studio Libeskind has designed a new museum building for the Museo Antropologico Regional (MAR) de Iquique (Regional Anthropological Museum of Iquique), that will display more than 6,000 years of history of northern Chile.
The inspiration for the design entitled ‘El Dragon de Tarapacá’ came from the stark landscape of the Atapaca Desert, the giant cliffs and the urban dune of Iquique, the ‘Cerro Dragon’. It consists of three pairs of parallel vertical walls shaping the major spaces of the museum. The materials reference the pallet and textures of the surrounding natural landscape.
The new museum will have approximately 3,760 square meters of program area to display its collection, dedicated to the pre-Hispanic history of the Atacama Desert culture to the colonial history, up to the rise and decline of nitrate mining, till today. The museum will also have educational spaces, classrooms and an event theatre.